F 

20 



\ 



P2?:?r 





W 



1891 



THE 



First Baptist Church 



— IN — 



RARIS5 NIAINE. 



centennial E:xercl3es 



ON 



Thursday, October ist, 1891, 



REV. A. P. WEDGE, Pastor. 




Glass / 

Book 



tr 



CENTENNIAL 



First Baptist Church 



PARIS, iVIAINE, 



Observed October ist, 1891 



PARIS, MAINE: 

J'RINTED AT THK OXFORD DEMOCRAT OFFICE, 
1S92. 



S%1 






CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Prefatory Note, - -- - - - - 5 

Order of Exercises, -..----y 

Address of Welcome, - - -- - - y 

Historical Discourse, . . . . . "v'-ii 

()riginal Hvmn, .--.---yy 

Afternoon Session, ------- yc) 

Poem, "The Old Church on the Hill," - - 79 

Evening Session, --.-.-.y:^ 

Errata, --------- S6 



-I 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



At the regular conference meeting of the First Baptist 
Church in Paris, Jan. 31st, 1S91, it was voted that the 
church celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of its forma- 
tion, and the pastor was appointed a committee of one to 
make preliminary arrangements. On May 17th it was 
decided to observe the centennial on Thursday, Oct. ist, 
this date being preferable for many reasons to Nov. iSth, 
the actual birthday of the church. At the same meeting, 
(May 17,) S. M. King and L. B. Merrill were added to the 
committee of arrangements. 

Rev. H. C. Estes, D. D., of Leicester, Mass., a former 
pastor of the church, was invited to deliver the historical 
discourse, and Hon. Geo. F. Emery of Portland, to write 
the centennial hymn. 

At a meeting of the church on Saturday, Oct. 3rd, it 
was voted to request of Dr. Estes his manuscript for publi- 
cation. 

In accordance with the action of the church, the exer- 
cises were held on the appointed day. 

The sun rose Thursday morning, Oct. ist, on one of 
those beautiful autumn days which no season and no clime 
can excel, — bright and fair, neither cool nor hot, with no 
cloud in the sky and just a touch of haze in the distance. 
People came in early, several driving a distance of nearly 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



fifty miles, and others coming a still longer distance by rail. 
The large audience room of the meeting-house was well 
filled at all of the meetings. A great deal was crowded into 
one day's exercises, and the sentiment of the people was 
well expressed by one who, though not a member of this 
church nor an active participant in the tlay's exercises, said, 
" I have enjoyed every minute of this livelong day." 

The fioral decorations of the church were simple Init 
ver\- beautiful. The pulpit alcove was arched in evergreen 
and autumn leaves, and several handsome bouquets were 
placed about the stand. One of the floral tributes, which 
l^ore the word '•'• Rest," was inscribed, " To the memory of 
Milo and Nancy Hathaway." 



ORDER OF EXERCISES, 



Thiursday jVIorniog. 

lo O'clock. 



1. Organ Prelude and Doxology. 

2. Invocation. Rev. T. J. Ramsdem,. 

3. Responsive Reading, 91st Psalm. 

4. Prayer. Rev. S. D. Richardson. 

5. Address of Welcome. By the Pastor. 

6. Anthem, " Be Joyful in the Lord." 

7. Historical Discourse. Rev. H. C. Estes, D. D. 

8. Centennial Hymn. 



Thitarsday Afternoon. 

2 O'clock. 



1. Anthem. 

2. Prayer. Rev. B. L. Whitman. 

3. Addresses. 

Rev W. H. S. Ventres. 
Rev. H. C. Estes, D. D. 
Rev. H. S. Burrage, D. D. 
Rev. a. T. Dunn, D. D. 
V. Richard Foss. 

4. Original Poem. Hon. Geo. F. Emery 

5. Anthem. 

6. Benediction. Rev. N. G. French. 



,•) 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 

Ttitarsday Evening. 

7 O'clock. 



AXTHEM. 

Scripture. Re\'. A. G. Fnz. 
Prayer. Rev. A. T. Dunn, D. D. 

4. Address. Rev. B. L. Whit.max. 

5. Anthe.m. 

6. Benediction. By the Past<jr. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



BY THE PASTOR. 



A master hand alone can so touch the keys of a cent- 
ury's history that the most perfect harmony shall be pro- 
duced. As one stands before a violin, mellowed by age, 
made rich, and to him, almost sacred, by the touch of artist- 
fingers in the past, so do I, the last of the line of pastors, 
stand to welcome you this morning, to the centennial of this 
church. It is but a word that I may utter, lest a discordant 
note mar the otherwise perfect harmony of the day. 

In behalf of this church and of this community, with a 
hearty personal "Amen," I bid you welcome. To this 
bright morning, to our beautiful village, magnificent in 
scenery, rich in history, to our homes and hospitality, to the 
birthday festival of this old, young church, " The Church 
on the Hill, " whose light has shone out over the valleys for 
one hundred years, from whose embrace noble men and 
women have gone to suffer and bear, to do and to die. May 
the Father whose smile has been upon this people in the 
years past, grant to-day His divine presence and blessing. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 



BY HIRAM CUSHMAN ESTES, D. D, 



We are assembled and met together here to-day, to com- 
memorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding 
of this First Baptist Church in Paris, To us it is a bright 
auspicious day. Whether we live here in Paris, or come 
from far, it is much like a golden wedding, which brings 
the children and children's children home with joy, to greet 
their parents at the old homestead, and to rejoice in early 
promises of love fulfilled, and in lives worth living lived. 
Or, it is like the centennial celebration of this goodly town, 
now twelve years ago, when her children, sons and daugh- 
ters, with a host of friends, came together on this hill, crowd- 
ing the spacious common, on vi^hich our church edifice 
stands, and we all i-ejoiced in what the century had done 
for us, and for the town of Paris. 

As men count time, a hundred years is a good while. In 
smaller and larger fields, towns and States, a good deal may 
be done in a hundred years. We have a power of retrospect, 
by which we can look back and see what has been done in 
the last century, and in distant centuries. We can do this 
with far more ease and certainty than we can forecast the 
future ; and from the study of the past we can learn lessons 
of wisdom to guide us in the future. The observance of 
memorial days and anniversai^ies has its root deep in our 
human nature and in our human need. By awakening 



12 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

thought, feeling and asph-ation, they help us to reproduce the 
past, and learn its lessons. The twelve stones set up by 
Moses, at the passage of the Jordan, told the children ot 
Israel, generation after generation, how their fathers crossed 
the divided stream on dry ground, that they might know 
that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and fear him forever. 
Therefore we do well to take some notice of this one hun- 
dredth anniversary of the founding of this church, and to 
commemorate it with these services, as other days are often 
celebrated "with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires 
and illuminations. " 

But like a precious stone, tourmaline or diamond, any 
history or historic sketch, needs some setting for its proper 
showing. The map of any state or country, from Maine to 
Palestine, needs to show not only the territory within its 
boundaries, but also a fringe of the surrounding territory, 
— be it land or water, plains or mountains, — because it is 
thus fringed or framed ; and to see it aright we need to see 
it in its relations, as well as by itself. Very unsatisfactory 
would be any history of our country, which should com- 
mence with the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, 
or the Declaration of Independence, or the organization 
of the federal government under the Constitution, without a 
word of the state of things then existing, and calling for 
these events, or of the movements which led to them and 
made them possible, if not inevitable. Therefore, a few 
words should be given to the condition of things existing in 
this State, and in the Baptist denomination in the State, at 
the time when this church was founded here a hundred years 
ago. 

At that time this State of Maine was still a part of Mas- 
sachusetts, and called the District of Maine. It had yet 
twenty-nine years to wait for Statehood. 

At that time the number of regular Baptist churches in 
the district was twenty-two. They were scattered along 
the coast and in the interior from Berwick and Shapleigh to 
Illesborough and Gouldsborough. One of them was twen- 
ty-three years old ; but most of them had been formed in the 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 



13 



last five years. Their names, with the dates of their organ- 
ization and the number of their members in 1791, were as 
follows, viz. : 



Churches. 


Present Name. 


Formed in 


g 


Berwick and Madbury. 


North Berwick. 


176S, June 26. 


61 


Sanford. 


ist Sanford. 


1772. 


38 


Wells. 


Wells. 


17S0, Oct. 


47 


1st Shapleigh. 


Acton. 


1781. 


38 


Coxhall. 


Lyman. 


1782, Oct. 29. 


34 


Harpswell. 


East Brunswick. 


1784, Jan. 20. 


53 


Bowdoinham. 


Bowdoinham. 


1784, May 2. 


30 


Thomaston. 


ist Thomaston. 


1784, Mav 27. 


122 


2nd Shapleigh. 




1785- 


23 


Canaan. 


Extinct. 


1786. 


18 


Gouldsborough. 


Extinct. 


1787. 


12 


Balltown. 


Whitefield. 


i78S,Jan. 3. 


18 


Vassalborough. 


Vassalboro. 


1788, June 29. 


30 


1st Bowdoin. 


Extinct. 


1788. 


57 


dishing. 


1st St. George. 


1789. 


21 


Frvburgh. 


Extinct. 


1791. 


22 


Illesborough. 


Extinct. 


1791, May 27. 


30 


2nd Vassalborough. 


Extinct. 


1 79 1, June 20. 


26 


2nd Bowdoin. 




1791, Aug. 17. 


21 


Bucktown. 


Extinct. 


1791, Aug. 


17 


Shepardsfield. 


Hebron. 


1791, Aug. 23. 


13 


Waterbo rough. 


Waterboro. 


1791, Oct. 27. 


30 



Of these two and twenty churches, eight were formed in 
the same year with this church in Paris, but earlier in the 
year. The seed sown by the fathers, Hezekiah Smith, Isaac 
Case, James Potter and Elisha Snovv, in earlier and later 
years, had taken root and was springing up as if the time 
for flowers to appear in the earth, and for birds to sing, had 
come ; the voice of the turtle-dove making music in the 
land, the fig tree spicing its green fruit, and the vines in 
blossom breathing forth their fragrance. 

A hundred years ago Paris was still an unincorporated 
township called "• Number Four " ; though it was incorpo- 
rated with its present name less than two years afterwards. 
Eleven if not twelve years had passed since the first trees 
had been felled, and the first opening made in the primeval 



14 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

forest on this hill, where now we see the common, and 
where the meeting houses, court house, and other county 
buildings, with the hotels and residences of this part of the 
V'illage, stand. Ten years had passed since the first harvest 
had been gathered in ; and almost ten since Mrs. Willis had 
come to make a home where before there had been only a 
settler's camp. The first framed house, now standing and 
occupied in the village, had been built two and a half years 
before. The number of inhabitants in the township had 
become more than three, perhaps nearly four hundred. The 
plantation had been planted with a goodly seed, as if three 
kingdoms had been sifted to obtain it.* Few towns in all 
the vState were as fortunate as was Paris in the charater of its 
first settlers. Their intelligence, their integrity, and their 
enterprise, made the town distinguished and envied from the 
first. Five years later, in 1796, the Rev. Paul Coffin, D. D., 
of Buxton, a Congregational clergyman of note and influence 
in his day, visited the town on one of his extended missionary 
tours through the State, and in his published Diary, he speaks 
of " the rich township of Paris," and he called it " a good 
place," though it grieved him much that it was not " united 
under a Congregational minister." The next year, on his 
way from Norway to Pennycook, now Rumford, he passed 
through the town again ; and in his diary he wrote these 
words, " I rode through seven miles of their inhabitants in 
Paris," and he added, as with a sigh,t "■ Paris would make a 
fine parish if united." 

Among the first settlers of the township were some 
members of Baptist churches ; and with them were others 
of kindred sympathy, spirit, and purpose. With com- 
mendable fidelity to their principles and professions, thev 

* " God sifteil a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into thif 

wilderness." 

—William Stoughton, Election Sermon, 1668. 

" God had sifted three kingdoms to find tlie wheat for this planting, 

Then had sifted tlie wheat, as the living seed of a nation; 

So say the chronicles old, and such is the faith of the people! " 

—Henry Wadswortli Longfellow.— The Courtship of Miles Standish. 

t Collections of the Maine Historical Society, pages 303, and 33S. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 15 

soon established and maintained a Baptist meeting, though 
they had no minister to aid them, except as occasionally 
one of the pioneer preachers might visit them. In 1790 
they received a visit from Elder James Potter, and under 
his labors there was a religious awakening and in-gath- 
ering which has been spoken of as "the first revival 
enjoyed in this town." The next year he visited the people 
again ; and later in the year, they received a visit from 
Elder Elisha Snow. Thus the way was prepared for the 
organization of a church. One day in the late autumn of 
that year, the time had fully come. Then, Elder Snow being 
present and assisting, twenty persons, ten brethren and ten 
sisters, banded themselves together in church covenant ; and 
the First Baptist Church in Paris was formed on Friday, the 
eighteenth of November, 1791. 

We would like very much to know more about that 
interesting and important transaction. We would like to 
know the names of those twenty persons ; the place where 
they met to organize the church ; and what business they 
did besides uniting in the bond of the church covenant. But 
of all this our church records tell us nothing. In fact we 
have no records of the church for the long space of thirty- 
eight years from its organization. The earliest date in our 
oldest book of records is " March 26, 1S29." But I have 
good authority for saying what I have said of the form- 
ation of the church. It is found in a fine historic sketch 
of the church written by its second pastor in 1S47,* when 
two of the original members were still living. In the first 
paragraph of that history Mr. Davis said: " Nov. 18, 1791, 
the church was organized under the direction of Rev. Elisha 
Snow, and composed, according to the most reliable ac- 
counts, of twenty members, ten males and ten females, only 
two of whom are now living." 

Beyond this, however, we learn from the records of the 
Third Baptist Church in Middleborough, Mass., who seven 
of those twenty persons were. Under date of August 16, 

* Minutes of the Oxfort Baptist AsiJociation, 1847, pages 7-13. 



l6 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

1 79 1, their record says: "Heard a letter read from our 
Brethren and Sisters living in No. 4, wherein they requested 
a dismission from this ch to a ch in that Town and accord- 
ingly, Levi Jackson, Isaac Jackson, John Willis, Japheth 
Washburn, Jemima Jackson, Patience Willis, and Sardinie 
Jackson, were dismissed." Of these seven persons, one, 
Jemima Jackson, was the wife of Lemuel Jackson, who, 
according to the recently published History of Paris,* was 
" the largest land-holder of the town," and of whom it says 
that, on the 4th of May, 17S1, he made a purchase " which 
together with his other purchases, made him the owner of 
more than one-eighth of the township." It was of him that 
Elder Hooper in his " Short History of Paris," said, " Soon 
after this time [17S0], old Mr. Lemuel Jackson came to 
Paris and brought with him fourteen hundred dollars and 
greatly helped the settlement of the town." Isaac and Levi 
Jackson were his sons ; Patience Willis, the wife of John 
Willis, was his daughter ; and Sardinie Jackson was the 
wife of Levi Jackson. Of Japheth Washburn, I find no 
mention in the history, or in the traditions of the town. 
Disappointing as this view of the formation of the church 
must be to some, and much as we regret the loss of its ear- 
liest records, we should be thankful for the records of that 
church in Middleborough, so tar distant, from which we 
learn the names of full one-third of those who were mem- 
bers of tiiis church in the evening of its first day. 

At a later time, twelve years later, steps were taken to 
form a "society" in connection with the church, with the 
rights anil privileges of religious bodies legally incorporated. 
A petition for incorporation by the General Court, was 
drawn up and signed by sixteen persons, arid as copied from 
a manuscript in the handwriting of Elder Hooper, it was as 
follows, viz. : 

" To the Honorable Senate and the Honorable House of Repre- 

* " History of Paris, Maine, from its settlement to 1S80, with liisfory of the 
Grants of 173(i and 1771, tof^ether witli i)er8onal slictclies, a coi)ious genealogical 
register, and an appendix. T?y Wm. B. Laphani and Silas P. Maxim." One 
Volume, 8vo., pp. 816. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. I 7 

sentatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in general court 
assembled A. D. 1S03 

We the subscribers inhabitants of the Town of Paris in the de- 
strict of Main, pray to be incorporated into a religious Society hy 
the Name of the first Baptist Religious Society in Paris, with the 
same Privileges granted to other Baptist Societies which have been 
Incorporated in this commonwealth. 

We also pray that James Hooper may be incorporated with us as 
our Teacher of Religious piety and Morality, we also pray To be 
incorporated in such a Manner as To Receive others into our Society 
who may hereafter Manifest To us a desire To join with us, To 
Maintain and keep up the Public worship of the great Supreme 
being, as in duty bound so prays your Humble petitioners. 
Paris May the 16 A. D. 1S03 
PS we also pray to be James Hooper, | Minister 

exempted from paj'ing Lemuel Jackson jr. 

anything towards erect- Benja Hammond 

ing buildings for the John Daniels 

use of other Societies. Nathan Woodbury 

Job French 
Caleb Cushman 
Solomon Jordan 
Uriah Ripley 
Asa Perry 
Jairus Shaw 
Nicolas Chesley 
Jacob Twitchell 
John Tewell 
Lemuel Jackson 
Samuel Stephens." 

With a single exception, that of Solomon Jordan, these 
sixteen persons have each and all a place in the " Genealog- 
ical Registers" of the " History of Paris." Some of them 
were members of the church ; some of them probably were 
not. But, however this may have been, their names, attached 
to this petition, show their position in regard to the prin- 
ciples and prosperity of the church ; and the petition shows 
what the church was striving for and what it had to strive 
against. 

Like many other churches in those early days, this church 
was for a time without any " local habitation," though it 
was embodied and had a name. It was a church in the wil- 
derness ; and, for twelve years, it had no tabernacle, or place 
of worship which it could call its own. In those years its 
meetings were held in a barn in summer, in private houses in 
winter, sometimes in a school house. Town meetings were 
held at first in private houses, and later in school houses ; 



lO CENTENNIAL OF THE 

and could the church have any better place in which to hold 
its meetings? But the need of a suitable and convenient 
house of worship was soon felt and confessed. In the war- 
rant calling the town meeting in March, 179S, there was an 
article, " To see if the town will agree to build a meeting 
house in said town." This the town did not see fit to do, 
but " Voted said article out." A few years later, though, 
the work was undertaken in another way ; a building com- 
mittee of five persons, — Ebenezer Rawson, Jairus Shaw, 
Lemuel Jackson, Jr., Benjamin Hammond, and Nathan 
Woodbury, — was appointed; and in due time the work 
was done. 

If now we had a letter, or a diary, written by some one 
of those engaged in that work, and telling something, even 
if not much, about it, we should deem it almost priceless. 
Something of this kind we have in a faded but still legible 
manuscript from the pen of Elder Hooper. It is dated, 
"May the 30 day 1804." ^^ '^ ^^^ ^ letter though, nor a 
diary. It is a part of Elder Hooper's Dedication Sermon. 
It contains the Introduction, and the first and part of the 
second divisions of the discourse. It ends abruptly in the 
middle of a sentence of the second division, the following 
pages having in some way become separated from these and 
lost. The Introduction precedes, instead of following the 
announcement of the text, thus having the place recentlv 
given to it by German preachers, instead of that which it 
has in English and American sermons. In it Elder Hooper 
spoke of the great changes made in Paris in the twenty-four 
years passed between the coming of the first settlers and the 
time when he was speaking ; of the state of things then 
existing; of the movement which resulted in building the 
meeting-house ; and of the raising of the house, which was 
a work of difiiculty and danger, which those of the present 
generation, who have never seen such structures raised, anti 
raised without the appliances and helps of modern art and 
machinery, — can hardly realize. Elder Hooper said : — "• In 
the year 17S0 the first settlers came into this Town, the[n] 
called No. 4, the plase being then entirely new and no roads. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. I9 

* * * their are now in this town 130 families, * * * 
four desent school houses and this meeting house. * * * 
the Inhabitants of this town have been prospered as to the 
good things of this Life as much as any town in this county 
and perhaps more, and we hope some in spiritual things. * 

* * In the year 1S03 several men drew a plan of a Meeting 
House and sold pews to the amount of two thousand dollars, 
and then proceeded to Build the Meeting House. In the 
month of June 1803 the Meeting House was Raised. About 
that time some pretended to say that several men would be 
killed a Raising this House and their was great danger 
attended. When Raising the belfry one of the Raising 
shores which was very heavy onfided and fell untill the chane 
catched into some of the timber and hung fast. Under this 
Raising shore were as many men as could stand, and if it 
had have fallen to Human appearance many must have been 
killed. The same Raising shore a few minutes after it was 
fastened gave away again and fell untill the hook of the 
chane catched into another chane and hung fast. When we 
were Raising the last belfry postes when the postes were 
about forty feet from the ground one of the mane Ropes 
straned and in a few minutes must have given away but old 
mr Jackson espied it and they stopped and made fast and 
spliced the Rope and went on. In this time of danger the 
Raisers were firm and courageous and the Meeting-house 
was completed and no Man hurt. " At this point the 
preacher turned directly to the occasion, said a few words of 
it, and of the part which the committee and proprietors had 
requested him to take in the dedication service, announced 
his text, and proceeded at once to unfold his theme, which 
in substance was The right dedication of the house of the 
Lord. His text was taken from the first book of Kings, the 
eighth chapter, and the latter part of the sixty-third verse : — 
" So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the 
house of the Lord. " 

So on Wednesday, the 30th day of May, 1S04, the first 
meeting house in Paris had been finished and was dedicated. 
It was a large house as befitted the large and growing popu- 



20 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

lation of the town. It was built in the old style of New 
England church architecture, with two tiers of windows, 
and a lofty massive tower projecting from the main part of 
the building towards the street ; three doors opening into it, 
one in front, one on the north, and one on the south side, 
though only the one on the south side was ordinarily used. 
The pews were high and square, with seats on two sides, 
one facing the pulpit, the other facing the door of the pew. 
In the west end of the audience room, opposite the entrance, 
was a high pulpit, with sounding-board above it; and there 
were galleries running round three sides of the house. Built 
of immensely heavy timbers, and finished without any archi- 
tectural ornament, it was a plain, firm, substantial structure, 
such as befitted at once the times, and the character of the man 
who was to occupy its pulpit. Viewed from within ()]■ from 
without, it must have seemed a building built to stand a 
century ; but in a single generation, it became weather-worn 
and brown, dilapidated and unfit for use. Like the old 
Jewish dispensation when Christ came, it had served its pur- 
pose, done its work, and was ready to vanish away, and give 
place to something better. 

In 1838, just thirty-four years from the time of its erec- 
tion and dedication, that first meeting-house was removed 
and another, — this in which we are now assembled, — took 
its place. This second house stands almost exactly where 
the other stood, only a little farther back from the street, and 
like the former house, it faces the east, and the rising sun. 
It was built by Mr. John Porter, who deserves a high place 
among the benefactors of the church for tlie responsibility 
which he assumed, and the wisdom and energy which he 
showed in his work, till it was crowned with success. He 
took the responsibility, and entered upon the work, from a 
conviction that it was needful, nay indispensable, for the 
prosperity of the church ; — and he carried it through with 
singular zeal and self devotion, — and not without the risk of 
much pecuniary loss, such risk that Elder Hooper, who dis- 
approved the enterprise, once said to him, while he was in 
the midst of it: '' iVIr. Porter, you will lose all your prop- 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 31 

erty in this undertaking." But the result was all that could 
have been desired by his friends, or b}' the church. The 
pews were sold for a sum sufficient to pay the full cost of 
construction, and Mr. Porter's wisdom was justified, as his 
courage and self devotion were commended, when the 
house was dedicated on Thursday, the 6th day of December, 
183S. On that occasion, the sermon was preached by the 
pastor of the church, the Rev. Caleb B. Davis, from the 
text, Gen. XXVIII, 17: — "This is none other but the 
house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." 

The old meeting-house had been used, as, in its time, 
meeting-houses were commonly used, for town meetings. 
It was so used from first to last. At a town meet- 
ing held on the 4th day of September, 1S37, it was 
"Voted that the town pay $14 a year for the use of 
the meeting-house for town meetings the last eight years." 
But, since that time, there has been no occasion for such 
action to be taken by the town. The new meeting-house 
was built with a basement for a town house, which the town 
owns and occupies for its own purposes, while the edifice 
above is used exclusively for its appropriate religious pur- 
poses as a house of worship. This separation between the 
temporal and the spiritual uses of the meeting-house was 
made as easily as if the people had been consciously making 
preparation for it from the first. As a step preliminary to 
building the new meeting-house Mr. Porter secured from the 
proprietors of the old meeting-house — Alanson Mellen, 
Moses Hammond, America Thayer, Rufus Stowell, Thomas 
Stevens, Daniel Fobes, Anna Hamblin, and thirty-eight 
others, their " right, title, and interest in and to the meeting- 
house situated on Paris Hill so-called, and in and to the land 
on which it stands, together with the land adjoining, used as 
a common ; " — their quitclaim deed bearing the date of Jan- 
uary 6th, 1S3S. Then, by deed dated October ist, 1S3S, 
Mr. Porter, for the consideration of $687.50, conveyed to 
the " Inhabitants of the town of Paris the rooms under the 
new Baptist meeting-house * * * being built on Paris 
Hill, * * * and also the right of building, repairing, keep- 



23 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

ing up and maintaining forever a house on the same land on 
which this building now stands subject to the right of the 
proprietors of the meeting-house to keep up and maintain a 
house above the rooms aforesaid, * * * with tlie liberty of 
entering upon the common around the same for the purpose 
of re-building or making repairs * ^ * whenever they 
shall think proper. " Such was the arrangement made bv 
the church and the town, whereby they live together ami- 
cably occupying houses covered by the same roof. 

Mention has been made more than once of the Common 
on which the meeting-house stands. It came into the pos- 
session of the church, or rather of the proprietors of the meet- 
ing-house, by deed from Jonathan Cummings, at the time 
when the old meeting-house was built. In the deed of con- 
veyance, which is dated April 6th, 1S03, it is described as a 
parcel of land "containing four acres and seven rods," 
For "the sum of Ten Dollars," it was conveyed by Mr. 
Cummings to "Nathan Woodbury, Jairus Shaw, Ebenezer 
Rawson, Lemuel Jackson, Jun., and Benjamin Hammond, 
all of Paris, being a committee appointed to build a meet- 
ing-house in said Town, * * * unto the said Com- 
mittee and Proprietors of said House, their heirs and assigns 
forever." In virtue of this ownership, when the proprietors 
of the old meeting-house conveyed their interest in it to Mr. 
John Porter, they conveyed with it their interest in the Com- 
mon, on which it stood ; and the deeds given by Mr. Porter 
to the purchasers of the sixty-four pews in the new meeting- 
house, conveyed with each pew " one undivided sixty-fourth 
part of the remainder of the House, except the pews, and 
one undivided sixty-fourth part of the Common around the 
same." 

In 1S21, a bell was procured and " swung" in the belfry 
of the church tower. In its purchase, ownership, and use, 
there is something peculiar. The first step towards its pur- 
chase was taken by the County- At the June term of the 
Court of Sessions sitting here in Paris th:it year, it was 

" Ordered, That one hundred and thirty dollars be appro- 
priated out of the public treasury of the County of Oxford 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 23 

on account of a bell for the use of said County, provided 
that, if any number of individuals within the town of Paris 
in said County shall by any addition to the sum hereby 
appropriated assist in procuring a larger bell for the use of 
said County, they may by their agents or themselves procure 
the said bell according to their discretion and cause the same 
to be swung on the centre meeting-house in said Paris and 
be entitled to use the same so long as they may keep it there 
swung or in such other place as may be equally convenient 
for the use of the County in such manner and at such times 
only as shall not interfere with such use of said County ac- 
cording to the directions of the several Courts which may 
be holden in and for said County and under the control of 
the Court of Sessions. " 

In consequence of this action on the part of the County, 
in accordance with it, and for their *■' own personal conven- 
ience and benefit, and for divers other considerations there- 
unto moving " them, a subscription was raised by inhabitants 
of the town, — one hundred and six in number, — some of 
them members of the church, and some not members ; the 
amount of their subscriptions being two hundred and ninety- 
seven dollars and twenty-five cents for the purpose of pro- 
curing a bell as proposed by the County ; and the subscrib- 
ers appointed ten of their number, namely : " Cyrus Ham- 
lin, Levi Hubbard, Simeon Cummings, Benjamin Chandler, 
Thomas Crocker, Ebenezer Rawson, John Daniels, Jr., 
Moses Hammond, Jacob Jackson, and Enoch Lincoln, 
[their] agents and attorneys to procure and cause to be 
swung in the centre meeting-house in Paris, in said County, 
a bell as aforesaid. " Among the nafnes of the ninety-six 
subscribers, other than the ten already mentioned, are those 
of Joseph Linsey, Jairus S. Keith, R. K. Goodenow, Isaiah 
Whittemore, Ransom Dunham, Josiah Smith, Jr., Phinehcis 
Morse, Benj. Hammond, Jairus Shaw, Alanson Mellen, 
Uriah Ripley, Daniel Pond, Henry R. Parsons, Noah Curtis, 
Jr., Stephen Emery, and James Hooper. At the October 
Term of the Court of Sessions holden at Paris in that year, 
it was '• Ordered, that the County Treasurer pay to Enoch 



24 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

Lincoln, Esquire, one hundred and thirty doUars, which 
sum is to be appropriated by him in part payment of a bell 
which has been swung on the meeting-house in Paris agree- 
ably to an order passed at the last Term of this Court. " 
From this it appears that, at that time, the bell had been 
procured and placed in position for use according to the 
original plan and purpose. It also appears that of the sum 
of $427.25, which the bell cost, somewhat less than one- 
third was paid by the County, and somewhat more than two- 
thirds was paid by the subscribers resident in the town of 
Paris ; that having been thus bought and paid for, it was the 
property of the County and the subscribers to the fund for 
its purchase ; that, as its owners, they had the right to con- 
trol its use as it has been used for the County Courts, the 
citizens of the town, and the church ; and the church might 
at any time revoke its permission to have it " swung" in the 
belfry of the meeting-house or on its grounds. Thus pur- 
chased and subject to this dual ownership and control, the 
bell has now for full seventy years been rung for the County 
Courts, for public, patriotic, thanksgiving, and funeral 
occasions, and for the services of the church, as we have 
heard it rung for our service to-day ; 

"And as the mighty sound it gives 

Dies gently on the listening ear, 
We feel how quicklj- all that lives 

Must change, and fade, and disappear. " 

Eight years ago a fine, striking town clock was placed 
in the church tower. It was a gift from the Honorable Han- 
nibal Hamlin, whose love for his native place was nev'er 
touched by the hand of age or decay. According to the 
books of the E. Howard Watch and Clock Company, its 
cost,/' set up complete in Paris, Me.," was $400.00. Be- 
sides this, there was an expenditure of $172.75 for the re- 
hanging of the bell, and preparing the tower for the clock ; 
a part of which, — $30.00, — was paid by the County, 
while the remainder, $152.75, was raised by subscription 
and paid by forty-six different persons here resident. The 
clock struck for the first time, on Wednesday, the 7th 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 25 

day of November, 1SS3 ; and since that time it has struck the 
hours of the day and night, in storm and sunshine, to re- 
mind the people of the silent, rapid flight of time, and its 
priceless worth ; and 

" For each that hears 
The music of thy hell, strike on the hours, — 
Duties between, anil Heaven's great hope Ijeyond them." 

In 1864, a convenient and much needed vestry was built 
in the rear of the meeting-house, attached to it, and com- 
municating with it by means of a stairway and door open- 
ing at the right of the pulpit. The vestry was finished 
with two rooms ; a larger one twenty and one-half by 
twenty-four feet, and a smaller one eleven by fourteen feet 
in size. By opening a sliding door between them, these 
two rooms maybe thrown into one. According to the report 
of the building committee, the total cost of the building was 
$892.67, of which sum $577.17 was contributed in money, 
and $315.50 was given in material and labor. When fin- 
ished the vestry was formally opened with a dedicatory serv- 
ice, on Saturday, the 5th day of November, when the pas- 
tor, Rev. W. H. S. Ventres, preached a sermon from Ezra 
VI, 16,17: — "The children of Israel, the priests, and the 
Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept 
the dedication of the house of God with joy, and offered at 
the dedication of the house of God an hundred bullocks, 
two hundred rams, four hundred lambs ; and for a sin-offer- 
ing for all Israel twelve he-goats, according to the num- 
ber of the tribes of Israel. " 

Three times this house has been repaired. First in 185 i ; 
and on re-entering the house, on the 4th day of May, in that 
year, the pastor preached a sermon from John 11, 19, 21 : 
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, 
and in three days I will raise it up. * * * But he spake 
of the temple of his body. " The theme of his discourse 
was Christ the Model Temple. In i860, the house was 
again repaired ; the doors were removed from the pews ; the 
pulpit was lowered to a convenient platform, raised onl}' 



26 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

two steps from the floor ; a new desk was placed upon the 
platform ; the floor was newly carpeted ; and the steps of 
ascent in front of the edifice received a new covering, the 
whole expense of the repairs, including painting, being 
about $600.00. The house was again repaired in 1875 ; 
when the total cost of repairing and refurnishing, including 
painting, carpeting, a complete set of new pulpit furniture, 
and inside blinds for the windows, was $622.16. The new 
chandelier then hung in the audience room was an additional 
gift from Mrs. Almii-a D. Crocker. On the Sunday after 
these repairs were completed, the pastor preached a sermon 
from Lev. XXVI, 2: — "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and 
reverence my sanctuary." — The house was first heated witli 
a furnace in i860; Miss Eliza Hamlin, at her death, having 
left a sum of money for the purpose of procuring it. 

Twice this house has been draped heavily and with much 
good taste and artistic skill, for memorial services of 
national interest ; once when the nation was in mourning for 
the death of President Lincoln, and again for President 
Garfield. Also, hardly three months ago, on the Sth of 
July last, the house was opened for a service in memory of 
Ex-Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin. It was at the hour of 
the funeral services at his home in Bangor. Very fitting 
was it that the house should be opened for that memorial 
service. For here in this village he was born and bred. His 
parents were honored members of this church. In the old 
meeting-house he went to meeting, and he was one of the 
first pastor's hearers, till, at the age of twenty-four, he left 
Paris to make his home elsewhere. Almost sixty years had 
passed since then, but he had been a frequent visitor in his 
native village, and every pastor had often seen him in the 
congregation, on the Lord's day. Though never a member 
of the church, he had been its friend and benefactor ; his 
good name, character, and influence, are a legacy for which 
we are all thankful ; and it was most fitting that these doors 
should be opened, as they were, for the inhabitants of the 
village and town to come in and pay their loving and heart- 
felt tribute to his great worth and fragrant memory. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 2^ 

In the first years of its existence, this church like 
many others of that time, had but little preaching. At the 
annual meetings of the Bowdoinham Association, from 1789 
till 1S21, arrangements were made each year for " supplies" 
for destitute churches, sometimes for ten or more, some- 
times, in later years, for only two or three. At the meeting 
held in October, 1792, the record in the published minutes 
says: " Agreed on the following supplies, viz., for * * 
* No. Four, Elder Potter 4th Lord's day in November, 
Elder Stinson 4th in March, Elder Macomber 4th in June. " 
In 1793, the arrangement was, '- for * * * Paris, Elder 
Woodward 4th Lord's day in January ; Elder Macomber 
4th in June; and Elder Stinson 4th in August." In 1794^ 
the arrangement was : " Paris, Elder Woodward 4th Lord's 
dav in October; Elder Snow 4th in January; Elder Case 
4th in June; and Elder Hall ist in August. " Thus it ap- 
pears that in one of those three years the church was to be 
supplied four times, and in the other two years, three times 
a year. Truly, " The word of the Lord was precious in those 
days. " 

But before the next meeting of the Association, the 
church was taken out of the list of destitute churches by the 
call and settlement of a minister ; and this was done while 
the churches in Hebron, Buckfield, Livermore, Wayne, 
Greene. Lewiston, and New Gloucester were still destitute. 

The first pastor of the church was James Hooper. He 
was born in the town of Berwick, on the J7th day of Decem- 
ber, 1769. He was the youngest child in a family of six 
sons and six daughters. When he was about twenty years 
old, his mind was specially awakened to the claims of re- 
ligion as an all-important, personal concern. Months passed 
before he found deliverance from his burden, and peace with 
God ; but at last he '• obtained a hope, " as he expressed it ; 
and he" was baptized, and joined the church. " Then at once 
the conviction that he ought to preach the gospel began to 
grow upon him strongly. He had thought about it before, 
but now texts of scripture opened their treasures to his mind, 
and he found that " preach he must, to beings accountable to 



2S CENTENNIAL OF THE 

God." He began to preach on New Year's day, 179I1 
when he was a few days more than twenty-one years old. 

At first, and for some time, he preached without any 
compensation. In his autobiography,* he said, " The first 
years of my preaching I did not receive one cent. " The 
reason, which he gave for this, was, that he was unwilling 
to depend on his people for his support, without his own ex- 
ertions, lest they should assume to dictate to him what he 
should do, how he should live, or how he and his family 
should dress. So the spirit of uncompromising independ- 
ence was strong within him from the first. The first money 
he ever received for preaching was at Woburn, Mass., 
where he says, " the people contributed five shillings. " 
There, in Woburn, he preached with some interruptions 
nearly a year ; and besides the "• five shillings " he received 
" a moderate compensation. " He was advised by some to 
get a college education ; but his health was far from good ; he 
did not expect to live long ; and he felt that his duty was to 
give himself to preaching, studying the Bible and other 
books as best he could. He says: "I loved the Bible and 
other good books, and I had a strong thirst for study and its 
effects. If obliged to work days, I studied nights. " Be- 
sides preaching in Woburn, he travelled some time with the 
Rev. Joshua Smith, a good man, and a successful preach- 
er in New Hampshire. " From him, " he says, " I received 
great benefit. " t 

In 1793, Mr. Hooper carrie into this part of Maine. He 
preached first in Minot, in the part now Auburn ; then three 



*Life and Sentiments of James Hooper, Minister of the Gospel. Paris, 
Maine, 1834. One Volume, IGnio., pages 72. 

t " Rev. Josluia Smith professed religion in the revival in Deerfield, [N. H.] 
in 1770, under the labors of Rev. Hezekiah Smith. * * * [He] labored many 
years as an Evangelist, and vras instrumental in the salvation of many souls. 
* * * He was called in the midst of liis usefulness to rest from his labors. " 
— Rev. Ebenezer E. Cummings; Historical Sermon. Note I, page 33. 

In 1794, Mr. Smith, " then a licentiate from the church in Deerfleld," was 
laboring very successfully in the town of Bow, N. H. 

— See Rev. E. E. Cummings' Historical Sermon, pages 1"2 and 34. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 29 

Sundays in Hebron ; and then by request in New Glouces- 
ter. While he was there a Baptist church was organized 
with twelve members ; and he says, " I was now well situ- 
ated, had a good home, and as much preaching as I desired." 
There he won the respect and friendship of Judge William 
Widgery and also of the Rev. Samuel Foxcroft, an honored 
graduate of Harvard College, who had been recently dis- 
missed from the office which he had held for twenty-seven 
years as the. first pastor of the Congregational church in that 
town. Mr. Foxcroft was kind to him, encouraged him, and 
offered him the use of "any book or books in his library. " 
" This, " Mr. Hooper says, "was a great help to me; for 
at New Gloucester I devoted myself wholly to study and 
preaching. " Thus the years of his preparation for the 
ministry were passed, and he was ready to enter upon his 
work ; but his appointed field of labor was not in New 
Gloucester. 

Very soon after the formation of the church in New 
Gloucester, on the i6th of October, Mr. Hooper received an 
invitation to come to Paris. In twenty days from that time, 
he was here. He came on Thursday, the 6th of Novem- 
ber, 1794. The result of his coming was that he spent all 
his ministry, and all his days here ; he — the first and long- 
est settled pastor of the church, and the first and only min- 
ister of the town. But in calling and settling him, the peo- 
ple did not act hastily or rashly. Nearly two months after 
his coming, on the 30th of December, a town meeting was 
called, and the 3rd article in the warrant calling it was this : 
" To see what the town will do about settling Mr. Hooper 
as a minister. " The town clerk's record of the meeting 
thus called, says, "At a Meeting of the inhabitants of the 
town of Paris qualified by Law to Vote at the House of Mr. 
Levi Jackson in said town on Monday, the I3th day of Jan- 
uary, A. D. 1795 * * * 

Voted to hear Mr. James Hooper preach upon Probation 
until next March meeting. 

Voted to choose a Committee of five Persons to se how 
Mr. Hooper will settle as a minister in the town. 



30 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

made choice of 

f Thomas Stevens ^'i 
I David Andrews | f ■ -a 
Messrs. <l Levi Hubbard )■ ^ .,, ,, 

T • 1 D- Committee. 

. I Josiah Bisco | 

LJohn Willis J 

Further the Town Records say : '•'• At a Meeting of the 
Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Paris 
Regularly assembled at the house of Mr. Lemuel Jackson 
on Monday, the sixth day of April. * * * 

Voted to accept the Report of the Committee Relative 
to settling Mr. James Hooper, and then made choice of Mr. 
James Hooper for our minister. " 

In less than three months, this action of the town was 
followed by Mr. Hooper's ordination. He was ordained on 
Thursday, the 25th day of June, 1795. The ordination 
service was in Mr. Lemuel Jackson's barn, which stood 
not far from the site of the present Academy building, a 
little east of it, and near the residence of the late Mrs. 
Persis Black. The ordination sermon was preached by his 
eldest brother, William Hooper, who had baptized him and 
who, according to his brother James, " was the first Baptist 
minister that was ordained in the State of Maine. "* The 
text of this first ordination sermon preached in Paris, was 
11. Cor. IV, 5 : " We preach not ourselves, but Christ 
Jesus the Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. " 
The charge was given by Elder Isaac Case, who had been 
appointed by the Association to supply the churches in Buck- 
field, Hebron, and Paris, the last three Sundays in that 
month of June. The Hand of Fellowship was given by 
Elder James Potter of Bowdoin. 

By this settlement in Paris Elder Hooper became entitled 
to four lots of land, which the original proprietors of the 
township had set apart for the first settled minister. Accord- 
ing to Elder Hooper's Autobiography those four lots were 



♦William Hooper was born in Berwick, February 28tli, 1747; he was 
ordained there August 14th, 1776; ami he preached more or less in that town 
till the last j-ear of his life. He died on the 7th of January, 1827. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 3 1 

" then worth four hundred pounds lawful money." But 
instead of keeping them all, he gave back two of them to 
the town, which, in 1801, sold one of them "at public 
vendue * * * for seven hundred and one dollars, " 
Mr. Alex. Thayer of Buckfield being the purchaser. At 
the next March meeting, in 1802, the town " Voted to give 
the Rev. James Hooper the interest of seven hundred dol- 
lars due the town of Paris from Mr. Alex. Thayer for one 
year. " On one of the lots which Elder Hooper kept, he 
made his farm, working hard the first ten years, to clear it 
up. During those years he says that he " received no salary 
from his people ; but occasionally some small presents. " 
He did not complain of thjs, though, but said, — " The 
Lord so prospered me, that I was as well able to help the 
people as they were to help me. " 

But in 1S06, eleven years after his settlement. Elder 
Hooper thought seriously of leaving Paris to become pastor 
of the First Baptist church in Portland, then destitute in 
consequence of the removal of their first pastor. Rev. Ben- 
jamin Titcomb, to Brunswick. The church in Portland was 
eager that he should go. He was disposed to go. The 
negotiations were carried so far that, at one time, he ex- 
pected to go the next week. He asked his dismission from 
the church and town. He engaged a man to take his farm ; 
and had a team ready to move his goods. But the people were 
unwilling to let him go. After conference with him by a 
committee, the town agreed to give him '"■ the interest of the 
money for which the ministry land was sold, from the time 
of its sale, annually, so long as he should supply the pulpit 
* * * as minister of said town." With this arrange- 
ment he was satisfied, and he remained in Paris till increas- 
ing years and infirmities compelled his resignation, and till 
the close of his life. 

According to the town records, it was twenty-three years 
from the time when the arrangement just spoken of was 
made, when he sent his resignation to the town in these 
words : — ■ 

"Being unable on account of age and bodilv infirmities 



32 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

longer to fulfil the duties and comply with the engagements 
into which I entered for supplying the pulpit in this town 
and having in an imperfect manner discharged the duties and 
responsibilities assumed by me at my first settlement as a 
minister of the Gospel in this place during thirty-four years, 
I now beg leave to resign my office as a minister of the 
Gospel for this town, and ask to be discharged from my en- 
gagements after the first day of April, A. D. 1839, and that 
this resignation may be entered upon the town records. 

JAMES HOOPER." 
Paris, March 29, 1S29. 

The Clerk's record of the action of the town on this letter, 
was this : — 

" Paris, March 30, 1829. 



Voted to accept the resignation of the Reverend James 
Hooper and that the same be recorded. 

Voted to accept the following resolutions and that the 
Clerk furnish an attested copy of the same together with a 
copy of this vote to the Rev. James Hooper. 

The town of Paris having received from the Revd. 
James Hooper his resignation of the pastoral ofiice dissolv- 
ing his connexion as the settled Minister of said town, and 
deeming it a suitable occasion to express their sentiments in 
relation to the subject, therefore. 

1 Resolved, That while they regret the ill health of the 
Revd. James Hooper, and his consequent inability to attend 
to the further pastoral duties, they entertain a grateful I'ecolec- 
tion of his early and lasting attachment to his people, his 
fidelity to them in his ministerial relations — and the deep 
interest which he has always manifested in their welfare. 

2 Resolved that the affectionate regards of his people 
attend him in his old age, and their ardent wishes that peace 
and happiness may crown his decline of life, and that he 
may enjoy the consciousness and the rewards of having 
faithfully discharged his duty. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 33 

3 Resolved, that these resolutions be recorded in the rec- 
ords of the town, and a copy of them be furnished to the 
Rev. James Hooper in behalf of said town. " 

When this action was taken, Elder Hooper lacked sev- 
eral months of being sixty years old ; and it may well be a 
matter of surprise to some that then he should thus have been 
yielding to the infirmities of age. But his whole life had 
been a struggle with infirmity and disease. When fourteen 
years old, his lungs were seriously weakened by an attack of 
measles, so that he was sick less or more every winter after ; 
and the wonder is, not that he yielded so soon, but that he 
resisted and kept the foe at bay, so long. On his fifty-fourth 
birth-day, he wrote these words: — " 1834, December the 
17 day. I am this day 54 years old. * * * Forty years 
out of the years of my life, I have been unwell in a greater 
or less degree. " 

Elder Hooper had ceased to be minister of the town, but 
he continued pastor of the church, full seven years longer; 
— though with ever increasing difficulty, hindrance, and 
interruptions. He did his pastoral work, and occupied his 
pulpit, in summer, but, as the years passed, he was absent 
from it, and confined at home, more and more in winter. 
As early as 1S33, the supply of the pulpit was a subject of 
serious consideration by him and the church; — and, in 
those years, different ministers were employed to preach, 
sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months ; among them 
David Nutter, Ephraim Harlow, John Hull, Adam Wilson, 
Reuben Milner, and Ransom Dunham. In the minutes of 
the Association for 1836, the church in Paris appeared in the 
list of churches as destitute of a pastor, the first time it had so 
appeared in forty-one years. The next year, the churcii in 
its letter to the Association spoke of having " an honorary 
pastor," whose labors they had long enjoyed, but of which 
they were then deprived. But before the next meeting of the 
Association, in 1S38, the place, which he had left vacant, 
was filled by another minister. Five years more passed, 
and then, in the letter of the church to the Association, 
" Mention was made of the death of Rev. James Hooper. 



34 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

for more than forty years pastor of the church." He died 
on the 24th of December, 1842, having lived in Paris forty- 
eight of his seventy-three years. 

Elder Hooper had lived, — and done his work, — and died, 
— and " after this the judgment ;" a judgment not infallible, 
indeed, or never to be reconsidered here, though absolutely 
infallible and final there, and yet so solemn here that all men 
should stand in awe of it. A sufficient time has now passed 
since his death, to allow us to judge of him fairly and justly, — 
without prepossession and without prejudice, weighing his 
character and work in the scales of an exact, impartial bal- 
ance, as always the righteous judge, in judging, will 

" nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice." 

Elder Hooper was by nature and original genius, a lead- 
er and commander of men. As such he w^as acknowledged 
and obeyed. In his ordinary intercourse with men, he 
made no requests of anybody. He gave orders, and his 
orders were obeyed. Like the Roman centurion, he might 
have said, — " I say to this one. Go, and he goeth ; and to 
another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, 
and he doeth it." 

He was a man of ability, and much more than ordinary 
ability. Had it been otherwise he could not have held his 
place in this church and town so many years, exerted so 
great an influence here, or won and held the respect and 
admiration of so many people of different classes for so long 
a time. 

He was a man of great energy and force of character, 
strong powers of mind, quick perceptions, clear concep- 
tions, deep insight, long foresight, indomitable will, per- 
sistency, and courage, absolute fearlessness and independ- 
ence, complete self-possession, self-control, and self-confi- 
dence, a magnetic power of influence and' control over 
others, — a very Andrew Jackson in his sphere. 

As a minister of Christ, he had a message for every man, 
and there were none to whom he was afraid to deliver it. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 35 

He seems never to have known the fear of man. In the 
church, and in the town, he was a John the Baptist, or John 
Knox risen from the dead. No reed shaken by the wind, 
was he ; nor any pHant sapHng of the wood. He was no 
graceful birch, or drooping willow, or beautifully shaped 
maple distilling sweetness ; but rather a hemlock, sturdy, 
rough-barked, and knotty, or an oak, tough, gnarly, and 
defiant of wind and storm. He was not clothed in soft 
raiment, like those who dwell in king's houses, but he was 
rather an Elijah with his sheepskin mantle and leathern 
girdle, rough, shaggy, and untamed, our most perfect speci- 
men of " the Oxford bear." 

His preaching was plain, direct, positive, robust; such 
as beseemed a product of Elder Hooper's mind. It owed 
nothing in any way, in form, or tone, or coloring, to any 
earlier or later master, but it was as original and independ- 
ent as was the man himself. It was not milk for babes, but 
solid food for fullgrown men, who had their senses exer- 
cised to discern between truth and error. His words were 
few, short, and sharp, like Elijah's or John the Baptist's. 
They were arrows ; and if they were ever feathered, it was 
not for ornament, but that thus winged they might more 
surely hit the mark. Thus he said : "■ Repentance lays a 
penitent at the feet of sovereign mercy, passive in the hands 
of a sovereign God, to do with him as he pleases; i. e., he 
sees God just, and himself justly condemned, and he is 
willing to give a blank into the hand of God, to do as he 
pleaseth ; as David said when driven from Jerusalem by his 
own son, ' If the Lord delighteth in me he will bring me 
back again ; if not, let him do as he pleaseth.' " His ser- 
mons, full of thought and energy "■ all compact," were 
short, very short ; seldom more than twenty or twenty-five 
minutes long, — for he had the rare ability to know precisely 
what he had to say, to say it, and be done. 

His preaching was sincere, as sincere as it was plain. 
In it, as in everything else, he was honest, and all confessed 
and praised his honesty. He believed what he preached ; 
and he preached what he believed. His convictions were 



36 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

his own ; they were positive ; and in his utterance they ap- 
peared as plain as the features of the hxndscape shown by 
Hghtning in the night. 

He was also as generous in his spirit as he was firm and 
positive in his convictions. Of the doctrine of " election" 
he said: "If no man on earth believed it but myself, I 
should still believe as I now do; but as a man, I am as 
willing that any other man should enjoy his religion as I am 
to enjoy mine." 

Not a little of a preacher's spirit, sympathies, and tone 
of preaching, may be learned from his texts ; whether they 
be judiciously chosen, or be such as "make the judicious 
grieve." From an extended series of Elder Hooper's texts, 
we may learn something of his character as a preacher. A 
small, unpretending manuscript volume of one hundred and 
thirty-two i6mo. pages in his handwriting, has escaped the 
ravages of half a century and is ready to give in evidence. 
The title given to it by him on the inside of the cover is this : 
" James Hooper's Text Book." At the top of the first page 
is this date : " Paris October the 16 A. D. 1S23," and the 
latest date is : "A. D. 1840 June the first day." It con- 
tains one hundred and ninety-six texts ; with various memo- 
randa and memorabilia ; records, as of a diary ; and lists of 
persons baptized at different times. The texts, whether 
longer or shorter, are for the most part fully written out ; 
and in some instances they are followed by brief outlines of 
the sermons founded on them. With few exceptions they 
make a complete sense as they stand by themselves ; and 
almost always they point directly to some important prin- 
ciples of truth or duty. They all have the merit of sim- 
plicity and sobriety ; and in no single instance are they 
quaint, eccentric, or sensational. The first text in the book 
is Acts III, 28: — "And it shall come to pass that every 
soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from 
among the people." The last is Matthew VI, 10 : — " Thy 
kingdom come ; thy will be done as in heaven so in earth. " 
On the third page are these words of prayer: — " O Lord 
give me suitable subjects that I may bring that unto the 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 37 

people, which I have received from thee." Such according 
to the evidence within our reach was Elder Hooper as a 
preacher. 

But besides his work as a minister of the gospel, he had 
a large farm, which he had made, and which he carried on ; 
and he was largely engaged in business. In his autobio- 
graphy he said, "■ I have had dealings with very many men, 
and I have had but little difiiculty with any. But I would 
not advise any minister to buy and sell so much as I have." 

He also mingled much with public men, lawyers, judges, 
and political leaders, he always had their respect, and con- 
fidence, and in one of the political parties, he was himself a 
leader. He was a member of the Convention which framed 
the Constitution of the State ; and he was a member of the 
important committee appointed by the Convention *' to pre- 
pare and report to the Convention a Constitution or frame of 
government for the new State." Twice he was sent by the 
Town as its Representative in the Legislature. In politics he 
was first a Republican as opposed to the Federalists, and then 
a Democrat as opposed to the Whigs. As a Democrat he was 
decided and thorough-going. He often said that there were 
two things in which he was established: — one was religion, 
the other was politics ; and when he was established in any- 
thing, it was as the everlasting hills are established. 

Religiously, politically, and socially, he was a man of the 
people. Sprung, like Luther and Burns, from the common 
people, he was bound to them closely by the ties of kinship ; 
and he was in complete and perfect sympathy with them. 
He was naturally a friend of the poor and needy ; they knew 
him as such, and so he held them by their heartstrings. He 
had those qualities of plainness, bluntness, alertness, insight 
into men and things, knowledge of human nature, inde- 
pendence and honesty, which charm the masses, strongly 
attract them, and hold their admiration. They called him 
•'• Uncle Hooper," quite as often as Elder Hooper ; and " he 
was Uncle to everybody." 

In his personal appearance there was something striking, 
— something which made a deep and lasting impression on 



38 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

those who saw him. His bodily presence was far from 
attractive or commanding. He was smaller in size than the 
average of men, though not diminutive. His head was 
large ; and his features were uncomely, ugly, many have 
said. He had thick lips, and what is sometimes called a 
double chin, not always free from the stains of tobacco ; and 
on account of a troublesome humor, he usually wore black 
patches on his face to cover the eruption, and soothe the 
irritation. But his eyes were large, bright, and piercing, 
as if his clear and bright intelligence, and his strong will, 
were looking out through their windows. His voice was 
rough and unmusical ; but its want of sweetness was soon 
forgotten by those who heard him speak. His dress has 
been described by one, who knew him well, as for a long 
time the same in style, and general appearance : — black coat 
of the old revolutionary pattern, with black velvet breeches 
and black stockings, with knee and shoe buckles ; and he 
carried a small bulls-eye watch, with fob-chain, an old fash- 
ioned seal, and a small compass. Unfading was the picture 
which many of the people formed of him in their minds, 
as they saw him, week after week, riding into the village on 
his fine, favorite, black horse, dismounting and fastening him 
to the fence, and walking erect and dignified towards the 
meeting-house, saluting each and all as he passed along to 
the door, and to the pulpit, which was his throne, and from 
which the whole service was conducted by his will, as if he 
had held a sceptre in his hand. 

He had so high an estimate of the worth of time and was a 
man of such punctuality, that he always commenced his serv- 
ices at the appointed moment, and he was impatient of the 
least inattention or delay. If, when he had read a hymn, 
the singers were not ready with a tune, he would announce 
one himself; and if after another hymn there was delay, he 
would call out " Sherburne," or something else, as the case 
might be. Once, on exchange with the pastor of a church 
in another town, after the reading of the first hymn, the 
chorister asked him to repeat the number of the hymn, say- 
ing that they had failed to hear it. Instead of complying 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 39 

with the request, he continued the service, and after prayer, 
took the hymn book, announced another hymn and said : 
" When I begin to speak it is time for you to begin to hear." 

No one seems ever to have been oftended by his blunt- 
ness, because all knew his honesty and candor, wiiich com- 
pelled no slight praise from those who were not in sympathy 
with his views. When the Rev. Paul Coffin, D. D., visited 
Paris, and preached at the house of Daniel Stowell, Esq., 
in the year 1800, he made this record in his diary : " Hoop- 
er, the Baptist minister of the place, heard me in the after- 
noon, and conversed some time, with some judgment and 
apparent candor,"* and this is no slight praise from one 
who in the one hundred and five printed octavo pages of his 
diary spoke of hardly a single other Baptist or Methodist 
minister, without some expression of disrespect, if not con- 
tempt, — while to Elder Hooper is given the praise of hav- 
ing " some judgment and apparent candor." 

Once, when Universalist preachers were first visiting this 
section of the country, some of the young lawyers of the 
place were in conversation at the County buildings, and a 
wish was expressed that one of them might come and preach 
a sermon here. "•But how can we bring it about.''" said 
one. " Go and see Elder Hooper," said another. Elder 
Hooper was consulted. In reply to the inquiry whether 
they could have the meeting-house for the purpose indicated, 
he said, " Yes, yes, and I will go and hear him myself. I have 
never heard a Universalist preach ; and I want to hear them 
bring forth their strong reasons." In due time the preacher 
came and preached. Elder Hooper was present. After the 
sermon, the preacher asked him to make remarks and close 
the meeting with prayer. Then he rose deliberately and 
said, "If God has any plan whereby to save all mankind, 
I have no objections. Let us pray." 

Such was Elder Hooper. Naturally and inevitably, his 
name is as familiar to the passing as to the past generation. 
The traditions of the people are crowded with anecdotes, 

♦Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Vol. IV, page 388. 



40 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

which tend to illustrate, some one, and some another feat- 
ure of his strong, positive, upright and downright character. 
Some of these anecdotes are well authenticated and to be re- 
ceived as matters of historic verity. Some have some foun- 
dation in fact, but are exaggerated and distorted out of all 
semblance of the fact ; and some are purely apocryphal, with 
no better foundation than " the baseless fabric of a dream." 
But at this none need wonder. His was such a character, 
that legends gather and cluster about his name and memory, 
like bees on the infant lips of Plato. 

But with all his ability and excellence, Elder Hooper 
had many limitations, and many serious limitations. 

He was a man for his own time, and not for all time ; for 
his own field of labor, and not for all fields. His knowledge 
was confined within a narrow range. His knowledge of the 
natural sciences; of philosophy, mental and moral; of his- 
tory ; of politics as a science whose roots run through all the 
past ; of theology as a science with its own history, ground- 
ed in the Bible, as the natural sciences are grounded in 
nature, and ever improvable as is allowed and insisted on by 
Protestantism ; and the principles of interpretation which 
should be applied to the Bible ; — all that he knew of these 
things was narrow and much of it was out of date even in 
the time when he was living; and the golden caskets of 
literature, ancient and modern, he had never attempted to 
unlock. Once in the presence of Thomas H. Brown, M. 
D., he heard a gentleman, well informed in the sciences, 
speak of the principles and facts of the science of Chem- 
istry, as then known, and particularly of number of ele- 
ments, or elementary substances, then known to that science ; 
but Elder Hooper interrupted him, and cut his statement 
short with the dogmatic assertion, " There are four ele- 
ments, earth, air, fire and water." But he had some books 
which he read and studied well. This is shown by his set 
of Matthew Henry's '"Exposition" of the Bible; an early 
edition, in six large volumes, sixteen by six and a half inches 
in size, printed in London in 1721 ; and for which he paid 
the sum of sixty dollars. Occasional notes or remarks in 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 41 

his handwritino^ in the margin of the well used volumes, 
show the care with which he read, and the shrewdness of 
his reflections. 

His system of theology was one-sided, disproportioned, 
exaggerated and extreme in some points and seriously deficient 
in others. He was strong in his views of the sovereignty 
of God, predestination, and election, but he was weak in 
his views of man's free moral agency, of his accountability 
grounded in his moral freedom, and of the free offers of 
salvation to all men without exception or mental reservation. 
His views approached, though they did not reach, and much 
less cross, the dead line of antinomianism, or of those old school 
Baptist views on which the churches in Berwick, Bowdoin, 
and Sidney, were stranded and left high and dry; — sad 
warnings against the drift by which they were cast away, 
and by which some were driven to form the Freewill Bap- 
tist denomination as a protest against those one-sided views 
which in their insistance on some truths, neglect others, 
which are their correlatives, and without which the truths 
insisted on, become not merely half trutlis but errors. Elder 
Hooper was too right-ininded to go to the extreme of deny- 
ing man's moral agency. He believed it, and said: "I 
confess that it is difficult to reconcile the determinate council 
of God with the moral agency of man, but they are both 
plainly revealed in the word of God. See Acts 2, 33. 
Speaking of Christ, ' him, being delivered by the determined 
counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by 
wicked hands have crucified and slain.' Here we see the 
determined counsel of God, on the one hand and the moral 
agency of man on the other, yet these agents that fulfilled 
God's determined counsel are charged with wickedness." 
It is to be noticed that in this statement of his views Elder 
. Hooper speaks twice of " the moral agency of man," but he 
does not use the words " free moral agency ;" and whether 
his views were such that he could have used the word 
" free " in this connection or not, it is true that his views 
were so decidedly of the old school, and so far from the new 
school of theology, that unintentionally, and unconsciously. 



42 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

he, by his preaching and teaching, led his people dangerous- 
ly near to antinomianism, and their ruination as a church. 

Elder Hooper was not in sympathy with the inward 
spirit or the outward activities of the churches in his latter 
days. He deplored their drift as away from, instead of 
towards, the truth. He used to talk much, in those years, 
about the tendencies towards an educated ministry, pride, 
and popularity in the churches, which if not checked, he 
said, would make another reformation necessary. He was 
not in sympathy with the Temperance Reform. He always 
stood aloof from it, as an invasion of men's personal rights 
and natural privileges. He never broke away from his 
practice of taking something stronger than wine, for his 
stomach's sake, and his constant infirmities; though, invalid 
as he was, he never made his health an excuse for his prac- 
tice. He practiced as he did, because he had a mind to, — 
and he never yielded in the least to the mastery of his habit, 
or to over-indulgence. He was not in sympathy with Sun- 
day schools, or with Ministerial Education, or with Foreign 
Missions. To an agent of our Foreign Missionary Society, 
who called on him, and candidly explained to him its object 
and work, he said, — "If I had a hogshead of gold in my 
cellar, I would not give you a dollar." 

That was Elder Hooper. He had his own mind, and 
his own way, and who could turn him.'' He was stern, 
rough, rugged, severe, imperious, dictatorial. From the 
traditions most current concerning him, it seems as though 
those who lived with him, or with whom he lived, saw little 
else of him than his rude and rough exterior, his self-reliance, 
his independence, his arbitrary, dictatorial manner, his 
defiance of every man's opinion, unless he chose not to defy 
it, and his utter scorn of the common courtesies of life, 
speech, and manners. But within his heart there was the 
spirit of another man. He had a spirit of tender sympathy 
with the poor, the suffering, and the lost. He had a spirit 
which bowed in humble, adoring reverence before the Lord 
his God. He honored man because he honored and exalted 
God. He loved little children, though often they did not 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 43 

know it, and were afraid of him. He had his gentle moods, 
and liis softened feelings. The diflerence between him and 
other men was that he was made up rougli side out, as usual- 
ly they are not. Therefore, in reality there were two Elder 
Hoopers ; — one outward, and seen by the world ; the other 
inward, and known to God, to the poor, and those who 
knew him best. 

It is not given to many men to exert such an influence 
as was exerted by Elder Hooper here in Paris; but that 
influence was no accident. There was something in him to 
account for it, and to produce it. Notwithstanding his lim- 
itations and his faults, he was one of those men who in 
church and state are pillars. 

The death of Elder Hooper was at a point a little more 
than midway between the formation of the church and the 
present time ; — and when he ceased to be pastor, that point 
was almost reached. Therefore the close of his ministry 
divides the history of the church into two very nearly equal 
parts. What was done in the former of these periods, is to be 
learned mainly from historic records ; — what has been done 
in the latter, is largely within the knowledge of men now 
living. Consequently much has been said of Elder Hooper 
and his times ; while less needs to be said of later men and 
times. But for more reasons than one, especial note should 
be taken of the life and work of Elder Hooper's immediate 
successor. 

His successor and the second pastor of the church was 
Caleb Bailey Davis. 

He was born in Methuen, Mass., on the 3d of July, 
1807. He was a child of Christian parents, who were mem- 
bers >Df the Baptist church in Methuen. In his later 
life, he often spoke of impressions which he had received 
from his mother's religious instructions, and from her pray- 
ers for him, in her room, her hand sometimes laid upon his 
head as in an act of consecration. But when he was twelve 
years old his mother died ; and a few years later his father 
followed her to the silent land. 



44 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

In his early years, he was fond of study, and he wished 
much to get a thorough education ; but the way was barred. 
He was apprenticed to learn the trade of a house-carpenter 
in Windham, N. H. There, for three years, he was under 
unchristian influences ; and when he returned to Methuen, 
at the age of twenty-one, — though strictly decorous and 
upright in his outward life and conduct, he was destitute of 
religious faith and of religious interest. So two years 
passed ; and then, on his tv/enty-fourth birthday, he found 
himself suddenly and unaccountably interested in the matter 
of his soul's salvation. He felt that he was a sinner, and 
that he needed a Savior. Not at once, but after a time, and 
after many an inward struggle, he found deliverance, peace, 
and joy, in Christ the Savior ; and he found it while in his 
closet, — praying. No sooner did he find himself "a new 
creature" in Christ, than he found that he had been taken 
possession of by a spirit of consecration to Christ. But he 
was careful to test his views and feelings by the word of God. 
He made a careful study of the New Testament, that he 
might learn from it what Christ required of him ; and hav- 
ing assured himself as to his duty, he offered himself as a 
candidate for membership in the Baptist church in Methuen, 
and was baptized on Sunday, the 6th of November, 1831. 

Immediately after his baptism, he felt a strong, inward 
urging to give himself, in some way, specially to the service 
of Christ, and the welfare of his fellowmen ; though not 
yet had he felt that it was his duty to preach the gospel. 
Therefore, to fit himself for some more eftective service in 
whatsoever field the Lord might call him to labor, he went, 
in January, to the Literary Institution at New Hampton, 
and studied there somewhat more than two years. Then he 
entered the Newton Theological Institution in 1834, too^^ the 
full three years' course, and was graduated with his class 
in 1837. 

From Newton he went at once to Farmington, and 
preached there six Sundays. He received a call to settle as 
pastor of the church, but declined it. He attended the meet- 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 45 

ing of the State Convention, held that year in October at 
Bath, and there he was urged by some, who knew the needs of 
this field, to visit Paris. Without doing so, however, he 
returned to Methuen. But he could not rest. What he had 
heard of this field so weighed upon his mind, that he turned 
back, took the journey from Methuen, and came here to see 
the field for himself, and learn, if he could, whether the 
Lord had some work for him to do here, or not. He 
preached here two Sundays, — and visited somewhat among 
the people. He saw little that was inviting. He saw that 
certainly there was a field here for labor, possibly, with 
God's blessing, a field for usefulness. He decided to labor 
here, at least for a season. The people were singularly 
drawn to him, and he was encouraged by their manifest 
readiness to work. In December they gave him a call to 
settle as pastor. But in his wisdom he saw that some things 
could be better done before than after his acceptance of their 
call. Therefore, in that matter, he counselled delay. In 
the winter, plans were made to build a new meeting-house, 
and he thought he saw the promise of a better day. In 
April the call was renewed, and accepted ; and on Wednes- 
day, the 27th of June, 1838, he was ordained. The ordi- 
nation service was held in this new house, though it was 
unfinished ; only boarded, and prepared with floor and seats 
for the occasion. The ordination sermon was preached by 
the new pastor's friend and for one year fellow-student at New- 
ton, the Rev. Alvan Felch of New Gloucester. The ordain- 
ing prayer was offered by Elder Hooper. The charge was 
given by Rev. John Tripp of Hebron, then seventy-seven 
years old, and in the fortieth year of his pastorate there. 
The address to the churcli was given by Rev. Reuben Mil- 
ner of Norway. The day of the ordination was just forty, 
three years and two days after the ordination of Elder 
Hooper, who then and there by the imposition of hands, 
transferred his office to his successor. The record in the 
church books says : 

'•The services were deeply interesting & impressive; to 
see our aged Elder, who had been the pastor of this church 



46 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

for more than forty years, laying his hands on the candidate 
& imploring the Divine blessing to rest on his successor, 
was really an impressive season." 

His whole ministry, like that of his predecessor, was spent 
with this church. His term of service was longer than that 
of any other pastor since Elder Hooper, — though it was 
only one-third as long as his. He was a man of note in 
many ways. He had a fine physique ; was tall and of good 
proportions ; and till the beginning of the end, he had such 
uncommon health and strength that he was not kept from 
meeting on the Sabbath a single day after his conversion ; 
and in all the years of his active life one would have selected 
him as one of those most assured of length of days, and the 
crown of age. But suddenly, in January, 1852, his eyes 
became abnormally sensitive to the light, and soon his whole 
nervous system was so affected that he was compelled to 
cease from his work. His last public service was on the 
15th of February in that year, when, with eyes closely band- 
aged so as entirely to exclude the light he attended the fun- 
eral of his friend, Mr. Thomas Clark, and according to his 
record of "funerals" spoke from the text, i Cor. XV, 53 : 
" This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
must put on immortality." In May he sought relief from 
eminent oculists in Boston, Dr. Reynolds and others, but 
in vain. In September he resigned his office as pastor or 
the church ; and his resignation was unwillingly and sor- 
rowfully, but of necessity, accepted. In December his dis- 
ease reached such a point that not only light, but noise and 
movement, though slight, caused pain, often excruciating, as 
if he had been made 

" Tremblingly alive all o'er, 
To smart and agonize at every pore." 

So passed the days, and weeks, and months, and years, 
till the third year had fully come, and then on the 12th day 
of January, 1855, he ceased to be mortal. But though his 
dissolution was preceded by so much of suffering his mind 
had shown its superiorit}' over it, and he had been a con- 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 47 

queror through Christ who strengthened him. Often in his 
paroxysms of pain he said, "O Lamb of God, be thou my 
pattern ! " Often he spoke of inward peace and joy — 
"unutterable and inexpressible." Once he said, "The 
apostle's vision of a rainbow round about the throne could 
not exceed some views of the heavenly world that have been 
presented to my mind. An artist would joyfully spend ten 
thousand years to represent such glory." When his physi- 
cian told him that his last day on earth had come, " he ex- 
claimed : Blessed, blessed news! Welcome, everlasting life.'' 
The last words which he spoke were, " Ease in death, ease 
in death. — Peace, peace, peace. — Amen, Amen!" Such 
was the passing of Caleb Bailey Davis. 

But though his life was ended thus early and untimely, his 
labor in the ministry had not been in vain. It had been 
fruitful in good results. In the first years of his ministry, 
there had been a cheering growth of religious interest among 
the people, many conversions, and large additions to the 
church. There had also been enlargement in other ways ; 
growth in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus ; an 
expansion of Christian sympathy and Christian benevolence, 
in active co-operation with the great Christian enterprises of 
the age ; and a work of benevolence that provoked very many, 
and all this under circumstances, often adverse and threatening. 
At the time of his settlement, several members either refused 
to act or dissented from the action, but with hardlv an ex- 
ception, they soon ceased from their dissent, and acted cor- 
dially with the church. 

Peculiar as was the field and the work to be done in it, 
he was peculiarly adapted to the field and the work, and the 
time in which he was called to do it. Calm, deliberate, and 
always self-possessed, thoughtful, patient, and persistent, 
gentle and yet firm, endowed by nature with a large measure of 
good sense and sensibility, well trained and cultivated in the 
schools, never rash or in too much haste to act, but straight- 
forward and tenacious of his purpose, when once it had been 
formed ; wise to see what in any case needed to be done, 
judicious in choosing and determining what it was best to do, 



48 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

and skillful in adapting means to ends to gain his end, when 
once he had decided on it ; always devout and reverent, yet 
never wanting in the grace of genial manner ; kind, 
courteous, and gentlemanly in all his intercourse with men, 
a singular sense of propriety, decorum, and order showing 
itself in whatsoever he said or did, he seems to have been 
especially raised up, called, qualified, and sent to do the 
work which needed to be done here in Paris ; to take up the 
work into which he entered, when and where Elder Hooper 
left it ; to set in order the things that were wanting, to change 
what needed to be changed, to lead the church up into a true 
and hearty sympathy with the Christian spirit of the age, and 
the various enterprises of Education, Temperance, Missions, 
and all that pertains to benevolence, reform, and progress ; 
and all this he did so quietly, so silently, so imperceptibly, 
as to cause no jar or discord, but the change seemed more like 
growth than the revolution which it was. Very delicate, dif- 
ficult and important, was the work which he had to do, but 
in the good providence of God, when the hour had come, 
the man was ready, and he was here. 

His influence was felt for good, not only in this church 
and town, but in all the region round about, in the churches 
of the Association, in the counsels of the Baptist State Con- 
vention and the State Missionary Society, and in the Board 
of Trustees of Waterville College, of which he was a mem- 
ber from 1842 till his death. Particularly, his influence was 
for good in behalf of the cause of Temperance. When he came 
to Paris the reform had sterling friends and advocates, in 
many towns, but in none was it strong, and in many it had 
not yet gained a foothold. Here in Paris, what has well 
been called " the powerful influence of Elder Hooper" was 
against it, as was the influence of many leading members 
of the church, but, with singular wisdom, tact, and courage, 
Mr. Davis threw his influence in favor of the cause, spoke 
for it here and in other towns, and did not a little to hasten 
that triumph of the reform in Maine, which he lived to see. 

As a student he was diligent, careful, thorough. His 
Hebrew Bible and his Greek Testament, he kept close at 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 49 

hand and in daily use, and in general literature, and the nat- 
ural sciences, his aim was to keep himself abreast of the 
times, so that his opinions should command the respect of 
his people. 

As a preacher, his sermons were distinguished for sim- 
plicity, plainness, directness, and adaptation to his hearers' 
needs ; for careful discrimination, exact and proper state- 
ment, richness and fullness of Christian thought, and that 
grace which, because it tends so much to win upon the 
heart, and promote spirituality of mind, devoutness of soul, 
and righteousness of life, is sometimes called " unction." 
He was not a brilliant or dazzling preacher ; he used but 
little gesture ; but he was sweet-voiced and charming in his 
deliberate utterance, and all his words tended to inform the 
understanding, enlarge the heart, exalt one's aspirations, and 
make the life better. Few sermons exceeded his in their 
power to make clear, distinct and lasting impressions on the 
mind, — the understanding and the memory. Of the ser- 
mons which I heard him preach in the years from 1S38 to 
1S51, the text, and theme, and leading thoughts of each 
were fixed in my mind, as by some photographic process ; 
and the sermons of no other preacher heard in those years, 
are more distinctly remembered, and only a few so well. 

His views of Christian trpth were not one-sided or nar- 
row, but broad and many-sided. Instead of carrying any 
doctrine to an extreme, his aim was to hold it in its proper 
place, and view it in its proper relations and proportions, 
neither magnifying nor minifying, nor distorting any truth. 
So he held and preached the truths held and insisted on by 
opposing parties, by Predestinarian and Freewill Baptists, — 
and he avoided their errors. '' The Balancings of Truth" 
was the subject of a sermon which he preached before the 
State Convention in 1845, from the text, — Psalm CXIX, 
12S: — "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to 
be right; and I hate every false way." That published 
sermon is a good illustration of the even balance of his mind 
in its doctrinal position, and in regard to the teachings ot 
the Bible. In it, after a vivid statement of the contrarieties 



50 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

and oppositions of doctrine in the Christian world, he said : 
" Whence these Babel dialects, these Ishmaelite theorems? 
Come they not from this cause : — the Christian world has 
not esteemed all the divine precepts concerning all things to 
be right; nor has it hated every false way? The complete- 
ness of revelation has been violated. The Bible has been 
cut into fragments, and each separate part constructed into 
a system by itself. The fullness of scriptural truth, its 
beautiful proportions, its just balances, its placing one thing 
over against another in lovely agreement, have been forgot- 
ten. Good men, in their zeal to elevate and defend a favor- 
ite doctrine, have been incautious in their treatment of other 
equally important doctrines. The theological radius has 
been used for the diameter, the small segment for an entire 
circle. Principles, expansive as infinity, have been cramped, 
and forced into occasions of contention ; and principles, 
local and temporary in their design have been distended, to 
include the centre and circumference of Christian faith." 
From this fundamental view of the truth, as that which, 
Milton says, " came once into the world with her divine mas- 
ter, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on," 
but which, since " he ascended, and his apostles after him 
were laid asleep," has been dismembered ; " hewed into a 
thousand pieces," and "scattered to the four winds;" from 
this fundamental view of the Bible, as teaching a consistent 
and harmonious system of divine truth, when all its precepts 
concerning all things are allowed their proper weight, — Mr. 
Davis led the church into an enlarged conception of Chris- 
tian truth, and brought it into harmony with the churches of 
the denomination, holding the views of Andrew Fuller of 
England, Caleb Blood of Portland, Thomas Green of Yar- 
mouth, John Tripp of Hebron, and John Haines of Nor- 
way, and the New Hampshire Declaration of the Faith 
held by the Baptist churches. 

In his personal character there was a grace of blended 
wisdom and devoutness, such as is commonly called saintli- 
ness. It is such as reminds one readily of Fenelon and 
Leighton. All who knew him well seem to have been im- 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 51 

pressed and awed by it. When he died, his brethren of the 
State Convention, speaking through the chairman of their 
committee, the Rev. Samuel L. Caldwell, D. D., said: "All 
his qualities and all his acquirements were distilled into a 
sort of Christian wisdom. And wisdom, graced with a ge- 
nial humor, mollified by love, dignified into piety, energized 
into constant activity. Christian wisdom was his forward 
characteristic." But his spirituality of mind and hisdevout- 
ness were as striking as was his wisdom. The spiritual 
mind, as distinguished from the unspiritual, was eminently 
his. He was a man who walked with God. He lived in 
intimate communion with God. He had a well trodden 
pathway to the throne of grace. He had his set times for 
his devotions, when he withdrew to his closet, and having 
shut the door, gave himself unreservedly to the reading of 
the Bible, meditation and prayer. Fasting-days he kept as 
a means of grace for himself; and he kept them as strictly 
and conscientiously as if he had been one of the Puritans 
of the olden time. On each alternate Friday, it was his 
custom to abstain entirely from food,* and to spend the day 
in his room " reading the Bible and the most searching 
religious books, and in meditation and prayer." Also, it 
was his custom nightly to rise from his bed, at midnight, 
and not only kneeling, but prostrating himself upon the 
floor — give himself for a time to prayer. After his decease, 
it was said that, during his whole ministry, he was never 
known, under ordinary circumstances, to fail of doing this 
for a single night. But of his fastings and prayer he made 
no parade or boast ; no more than if in another land or age 
he had anointed his head and washed his face that he might 
not appear unto men to fast. Of his closet transactions he 

* " Fasting, when it is in order to prayer, mu9t be a total abstinence from 
all meat, or else an abatement of the quality ; for the help wliich fasting does to 
prayer cannot be served by changing flesh into fish, or milk-meats into dry diet, 
but by turning much into little or little into none at all, during the time of sol- 
emn or extraordinary prayer. * * * All fasting, for whatsoever end it be 
undertaken, must be done without any opinion of the necessity of the thing 
itself, without censuring others, with all humility, in order to the proper end." 
— The whole works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D. D., in Ten 
Volumes. Vol. Ill, pages 168, 169, i. e.. Holy Living, Chap. IV, Sec. V. 



52 CEXTEXXIAL OF THE 

did not speak to men in public or to his friends in private, 
because he knew that to speak of them, and pubHsh them, 
would be to profane them, and make them worse than use- 
less. But their influence upon him could not be hidden. 
It must be manifest, as the communion of Moses with God 
on Sinai made his face to shine, when he came down from 
the mount, though he knew it not. Humble, self distrust- 
ful, unpretentious, as he was, he made those with whom he 
came in contact feel that he was a man of unusual sanctity, 
— not sanctimoniousness, — for there was no trace of pre- 
tense or cant about him ; but unaftected, genuine sanctity. 
" Do you know Mr. Davis, of Paris.?" I once said to the 
Rev. Zabdiel Bradford of Yarmouth. "Know him," he 
replied, "yes, he is the holiest man on this earth." I learn- 
ed afterwards that they had been classmates at Newton ; and 
that his answer to my question had been dictated by his 
acquaintance with him there, and in the six following years. 
After his death, another classmate in the Institution at New- 
ton, the Rev. William H. Shailer, D. D., prepared and 
published in his paper, the Zion's Advocate, an extended 
biographical sketch of Mr. Davis, with analyses of his 
character, as a man ; as a Christian ; as a preacher ; and as 
a pastor ; the six articles filling nearly eleven columns of the 
paper. Those tributes to his memory were sincere, dis- 
criminating, and hearty in their delineation and commen- 
dation of his excellence ; and they show like a wreath of 
Immortelles placed by a friend upon his coffin. In one of 
those articles, Dr. Shailer said : — " Our own impression is, 
that he deserves to be ranked among the most devoted and 
pious men that our country has produced ; " and in another 
he said : " Beyond almost any man we ever knew, he 
answered Cowper's description of a good preacher : 

' Simple, grave, siucere; 
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, 
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste. 
And natural in gesture; much impressed 
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge. 
And anxious mainly that the tlock he feeds 
May feel it too; adectionatc in look 
And tender in address, as well becomes 
A messenger of grace to guilty men.' " 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 53 

It was my fortune to meet him occasionally in his later 
ministry, and I never left his presence without feeling that 
the interview, whether longer or shorter, had been one of 
positive benefit to myself, or without an increased respect 
and admiration for him whose acquaintance and memory I 
never ceased to prize ; and the mention of whose name any- 
where is to me " as ointment poured forth." 

The next and third pastor of the church was Adam Wil- 
son, D. D. He was born in Topsham on the loth of Febru- 
ary, 1794. He was fitted for college at Hebron Academy ; 
and was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1819. In the 
first year of his college course, he was an earnest religious 
inquirer ; and before his graduation he made his profession 
of religion, and was baptized by Rev. Henry Kendall. 
After his graduation he studied theology with William 
Staughton, D. D., of Philadelphia, and he was ordained as 
an evangelist at Topsham, on the 13th of December, 1820. 
In the early part of 1822, he began to preacli in Wiscasset, 
where he continued nearly three years. He afterwards 
preached several years in New Gloucester and Turner ; and 
he was the first pastor of the church in Turner. In 1828 
he established the Zion's Advocate ; and he conducted it as 
Editor and Proprietor till 1S38, when he become pastor of 
the First church in Bangor. There he remained nearly four 
years. Then he was again pastor of the church in Turner 
two years. In 1844 he again took charge of his paper, — the 
Zion's Advocate, which he conducted till 1850, — when he 
became pastor of the church in Hebron, three years ; and 
then, after the resignation of Mr. Davis, he was pastor of this 
church from 1852 to 1857, ^^^ years. After resigning his 
ofiice here, he made his home in Waterville, supplying des- 
titute churches, and doing much missionary work in the 
State ; till within a few weeks of his death, which was on 
the i6th of January, 1871 ; — fifty years and thirty-four days 
from the day of his ordination. He was a man of remark- 
able physical vigor, such that when he was three score and 
sixteen years old it seemed almost literally true that, '' His 
eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." He vvas 



54 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

a good scholar, when there were but few educated men in 
our ministry ; and he kept his scholarly habits to the end of 
his days. He was a sound, instructive preacher of the gos- 
pel ; — an eagle-eyed editor of a religious paper ; and a suc- 
cessful man of business, all in one. He made his influence 
felt strongly in favor of education and every other good 
cause, from first to last. During the long period of forty- 
two years, — from 1828 till his death, — he was one of the 
Trustees of Waterville College and Colby University ; and 
he was President of our Maine Baptist Education Society, 
when he died. As a preacher he lacked the grace and bril- 
liancy which make some preachers famous, — for a day ; but 
he had those sterling qualities which give lasting influence 
for good, by informing the understanding and quickening 
the conscience. He preached the gospel as a gospel of sal- 
vation for lost men through Christ, and as a gospel whose 
natural fruit is righteousness of life. This twofold character 
of the gospel formed the burden of his sermon preached at 
my own ordination in Auburn ; and in his preaching to his 
own people he insisted upon good works, or morality, as if 
not Calvin, but he, had first said, " We never dream, either 
of a faith destitute of good works, or of a justification unat- 
tended by them." So good was his influence, and so good 
in so many ways, that it has been said that " probably to no 
one man is the present prosperity of the Baptist denomina- 
tion in the State of Maine more due than to the subject of 
this sketch," * Dr. Wilson. To me he was so well known 
that when, in another State, I learned of his death, I spoke 
of him to my congregation, and said that modest, unassum- 
ing, and unambitious as he was, he had been one of the 
most influential men of all our New England ministry ; and 
now I am glad to say that it was well that his ministry of 
five years duration here, followed, and added its good influ- 
ence, to the ministry of his warm friend, and beloved fellow 
laborer, Caleb B. Davis. 



*Tlie Baptist Encycloptt'ilia. ' * * Editeilby William Cathcart, D. U., 
pages 1256 and 1257. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 55 

Dr. Wilson's successor, and the fourth pastor of the 
church, was William Hosmer Shailer Ventres. He was 
born in Haddam, Conn., on the 3rd of October, 1S32. He 
was fitted for college in the High School at Brookline, Mass. ; 
and was graduated from Harvard College in 1S55 ; and from 
the Newton Theological Institution in 1858. He first came to 
Paris in February, 1858. He came again in the following 
April, intending to preach two Sundays ; but the religious 
interest then developing, led him to remain several weeks, 
so that practically he had charge of the pulpit from that time. 
He was ordained in Portland, on Thursday, the 8th of the 
following July. At his ordination, the sermon was preached 
by William H. Shailer, D. D. ; the prayer of ordination 
was offered by Rev. Thomas B. Ripley ; and the charge was 
given by Rev. George W. Bosworth. He was pastor of the 
church eight years and four months ; resigning and closing 
his labors the last Sunday in October, 1866. On leaving 
Paris, he at once become pastor of the church in Hyde 
Park, Mass. 

The next and fifth pastor was William Henry Walker. 
He entered upon his work here in 1S67, and closed it in 
1870. He was born in Lexington, Mass., June ist, 1824. 
He was converted when eighteen years old ; was baptized . 
by the Rev. William Leverett ; and was soon led to feel that 
the work of the ministry was his appointed work. He was 
fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H. ; and 
then he studied two years, — 1850 and 1851, — in Brown 
University. He then took the full course in the Newton 
Theological Institution ; and was graduated with his class 
in 1855. On the 8th of August, in that year, he was ordain- 
ed in Westboro, Mass. He was pastor at Westboro three 
years; at Natick, three years; at South Gardner, three 
years ; at Hampton Falls, N. H., three years ; here in Paris, 
three years ; at Greenville, N. H., three years; at Warner, 
N. H., eight years ; at Edgarton, Mass., four years ; and at 
North Leverett two years. He died suddenly at North Lev- 
erett, just as he was leaving his house to visit a sick parishioner, 
on Sunday, the 37th of November, 1S87. The text of his 



56 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

last sermon was Phil. Ill, 8 ; — last clause, " That I may win 
Christ." Of all the pastors of this church, he is the only 
one whom I never saw, but the uniform testimony of those 
who knew him well, in his different fields of labor, shows 
that he was a good, faithful, trustworthy man ; a devoted 
and faithful minister of Christ ; a plain, simple, scriptural 
preacher of the gospel ; and a kind, sympathizing, and 
helpful pastor ; one whose steadfast aim in life was to do 
good to his fellowmen, and who, when he left the world, 
left to his friends who survived him, a good name, and a 
grateful memory. 

Mr. Walker's successor was Albert Aaron Ford. He 
was born in Boston, Mass., August 25th, 1840. He was 
educated in the public schools of Cambridge, Mass. ; at 
Phillips Academy, Andover ; and in the Newton Theolog- 
ical Institution, from which he was graduated with the class 
of 1870. On the 2nd of November, in that year, he was 
ordained here as pastor of the church. The ordination ser- 
mon was preached by Sumner R. Mason, D. D., of Cam- 
bridge, Mass. ; the ordaining prayer was offered by Rev. A. 
K. P. Small ; and the charge was given by Adam Wilson, D. 
D. At the end of two years from his ordination, he tend- 
ered his resignation, and closed his labors on the 2nd of 
November, 1S72. He was afterwards settled as pastor at 
Belfast, three years ; at Tennant's Harbor, — in St. George, 
two years ; and at Waldoborough, four years. Then, fail- 
ing health compelled his resignation, and his withdrawal 
from the active work of the ministry, in 1884. From that 
time, he gradually declined till his death at Kent's Hill, on 
the 2nd of June, 18S7. Before he entered upon his course . 
of study for the ministry, he was a practical printer of sin- 
gular good taste and skill ; and he sacrificed much that was 
promising in his business prospects when he decided to 
become a preacher of the gospel. But having made that 
decision, he did not look back. He was a diligent and 
faithful student ; a clear and vigorous thinker ; and an unaf- 
fected and earnest preacher. He was a man of marked sim- 
plicity of mind and character; frank, honest and straight- 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 57 

forward ; true to the core ; unselfish and thoroughly devoted 
to his work ; clinging to it even in bodily weakness and 
decay. He was devout in spirit ; fervent in prayer ; tender 
in his sympathies ; and pure in heart. He was one who 
might have said without reproach, " I believed, and there- 
fore have I spoken ;" and when he died many felt that he 
had won his Master's welcome: "Well done, good and 
faithful servant." In recognition of his attainments as a 
scholar, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred 
upon him by Colby University, in 1S79. 

In the next month after Mr. Ford's resignation I received 
and accepted a call to the pastorate. I entered upon my 
work here on the first of January, 1873 ; and closed it with 
the month of June, 1883. 

The next pastor was James Edward Cochrane. He was 
born in Monmouth, July 4th, 1854. After having attended 
the common schools in Monmouth and Easton, he studied 
three years in the VVaterville Classical Institute: — was 
graduated from Colby University in iSSo; and from the 
Rochester Theological Seminary, in 1SS3. — He was licensed 
to preach by the church in Easton in 1873 ; — and he was 
ordained at Mariaville, on the 5th of August, 1S79. ^^ 
entered upon his labors as pastor of this church, on the first 
of September, 1883 ; and closed them on the first of August, 
1SS6. On the 14th of the next October, he sailed from 
Boston for Missionary work in Burma. 

His successor, and the ninth pastor, was Gideon Mayo. 
He was born in the town of Eden, Hancock County, No- 
vember 23rd, 1846. He was educated iii the common schools 
of that town ; at the State Normal School, Castine ; and at 
the Newton Theological Institution, — two years, 1883 and 
1S84. He was licensed to preach by the church in Eden, 
in September, 1883. He was ordained at Brooklin, on the 
2nd of September, 1884. After a pastorate of three years 
there, he was called to this field, where he was pastor of this 
church, and also of the church at South Paris, two years, 
from 1S87 to 1889. Then he resigned, and became pastor 
of the church in Harrington. 



5S CENTENNIAL OF THE 

The present pastor, Arthur Pearl Wedge, was ordained 
here on the 7th of November, 1889. The ordination ser- 
mon was preached by the Rev. William C. Barrows ; and 
the ordaining prayer was offered by the Rev. C. W. Potter 
of Litchfield, Conn., — a grandfather of the candidate. 

From what has now been said, it appears that, of the 
ten persons who have held the office of pastor in this church, 
four, — the first, second, sixth, and last, — have been ordained 
here ; — the first in Mr. Jackson's barn, before the first meet- 
ing-house was built; the others in this house. It also ap- 
pears that the church has had a settled pastor full ninety- 
four of the one hundred years of its history. Three years, 
'seven months and seven days passed between the organiza- 
tion of the church, and the ordination of Elder Hooper, — 
but he had been laboring here seven months and nineteen 
days at the time when he was ordained. Since that time, 
the pastorate has been vacant, not more than thirty months, 
counting them all. But in not a few of those months, the 
pulpit was supplied by the same person who was soon set- 
tled as pastor. It was so supplied, as we have seen, by Mr. 
Ventres, during the four months before his ordination. 
Also, in the interim of eleven months between the resigna- 
tion of Mr. Cochrane and the settlement of Mr. Mayo, the 
pulpit was supplied from November 14th, 1SS6, till June 
26th, 1887, — a period of seven and a half months, by the 
Rev. William C. Barrows, who received and declined a 
hearty call to the pastorate, and who says that the months 
spent with the people in Paris, "• were months of peculiar 
pleasure and satisfaction." — Other churches, in their his- 
tory of a hundred years, may have had fewer pastors, but 
very few have had a settled pastor more of the time. 

The first pastor of the church. Elder Hooper, was twice 
married. His first wife was Miss Sally Merrill of New 
Gloucester. She was born December 5th, 1778. They 
were married in 1797, and she died of consumption, on the 
19th of April, iSo3. His second wife was Mrs. Betsy 
Hubbard, widow of Reuben Hubbard, and daughter of 
Benjamin Stowell of Worcester, Mass. She first came 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 



59 



into the town of Pai-is, in 17S4. They were married, 
November iSth, 1S03, and she died, April ist, 1853. The 
other nine ministers of the church have all been helped in 
their ministry, by wives whose names are in the book of 
life, and who are all now living. 

Seventeen persons have served the church in the office of 
Deacon. Their names, with their terms of service, are as 
follows, viz. : — 



*John Willis, 

* William Parsons, 

* Stephen Chase, 

* Daniel Fobes, 

* Josiah Smith, 

* Joseph Lindsey, 



1791-1S12 
1797-1S06 
1S05-1S30 
1806-1814 
1811-1830 
1817-1824 



Benjamin Chandler, M. D., 1824-1827 



* Isaac Mann, 

* Luke Chase, 

* Thomas Stevens, 

* Joel B. Thayer, 

* Levi Thayer, 
Austin Chase, 
Henry F. Morton, 

* William Rice, 
Alexander Edwards, 
Carroll R. King, 



1826-1838 
I 829-1 839 
1839-1865 
I 839- I 874 
1854-1875 
1 854- 1 874 
1874-1885 
1875-1891 
1885- 



1S91 



Dea. Willis was one of those who having " served well 
as deacons, gain to themselves a good standing and great 
boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." He was a 
devout man and his house, at the north-west corner of the 
Common, was very near the sanctuary. Like some of the 
first deacons of the church at Jerusalem, he became a 
preacher of the word ; and as such he will be spoken of in 
his place with the ministers, who have been raised up in the 
church, or have proceeded from it. 

Dea. Parsons lived in Norway, and was one of the early 
settlers of that town. He was there, and began to fell trees 
on the lot, of which he made his farm, in 1787, if not in 



6o CENTENNIAL OF THE 

17S6. According to a tax-list dated " November th 7, 1794," 
he then paid a higher tax than any other of the inhabitants, 
with the single exception of Henry Rust. He was one of 
the seven persons dismissed to form the church in Norway 
in 1806; and he was the first deacon of that church. He 
was twice a delegate from this church to the Association ; 
and eleven times from the church in Norway. As a man, 
and as an officer he had the respect of all. He died on the 
8th of January, 1S45, aged eighty-five years. 

Dea. Stephen Chase lived in Woodstock, at a place 
nearly ten miles distant from this village. He was one of 
the early settlers of that town ; moving into it with his fam- 
ily in i8o3. During all the time that he lived in the town 
he was " its foremost man." He was the trusted and effi- 
cient Agent of the Proprietors of the township for the sale 
of their lands ; the first Justice of Peace ; and the first rep- 
resentative of town in the Legislature. He was baptized in 
Woodstock by Elder John Tripp, of Hebron, on the 22nd 
of October, 1S04.* Extracts from a diary kept by him in 
the years from 1801 to 1S06 have been published; — and 
under the above date of his baptism, he says, " Went to 
meeting at Luther Whitman's and was baptized, together 
with three others." Under date of " 1S05 * * * June 
9th," he says, "Went to meeting at Mr. Swan's and heard 
Elder Hooper. Went to the water, and saw my wife and 
Merrill Chase's wife and Calvin Cole baptized." Often he 
speaks of going to meeting at difl'erent places, and hearing, — 
sometimes Elder Tripp, sometimes Deacon Willis, and 
sometimes Elder Hooper, preach. — Sometimes he says 
"Went to Paris and heard Mr. Hooper;" — sometimes, 
"Went to a church meeting at Paris," and several times, 
"Elder Hooper preached here." From this we see as " in 
a mirror, darkly," the scattered condition of the church in 
those years ; the work of its minister ; — and the thirst of the 

* " About the last of October, 1S04," Elder Tripp visiteil the people in Little's 
Gnint, afterwards Wooilstock; and in his Journal he made this record: — "I 
preached and attended conference with tliem, and baptized four persons."— The 
MaasachiLsetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, Vol. 1, p. IXi. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 6l 

people for his ministrations. In 1S25, Dea. Chase moved 
from Woodstock to Lincohi ;* and afterwards he was dis- 
missed, with others, to form the church in that town. 

Daniel Fobes of Bridgewater, Mass., was born Febru- 
ary 1 2th, 1742. In 1769 he married Hannah Standish, who 
was a great grand-daughter of the famous Capt. Miles 
Standish of our early New England history. She was born 
at Captain's Hill, in Duxbury, Mass., March 22nd, 1746. 
He came to Paris, November 2nd, 1802 ; having already 
bought land for his farm adjoining Elder Hooper's. Four 
years later he was chosen Deacon of the church. He died 
in 1814, leaving a good name, and the example of a good 
and faithful life. His widow lived till 1839, when, on the 
13th of January, her funeral was attended by Mr. Davis, 
the serm6n being preached by Elder Hooper. 

Dea. Lindsey was born in Marblehead, Mass., on the 7th 
of February, 17S0. He came to Paris with his family, in 
1814. He lived here in the village ; at one time in the house 
now occupied by Mrs. Arabella Carter. He was a man of 
much strength and excellence of character ; an efficient 
officer of the church ; and universally respected. He used 
often to have prayer meetings at his house, and to lead them 
himself. On one occasion, some one whom he had asked 
to speak declined, for the reason that he was " cold." At 
once Dea. Lindsey said, " If you are cold in body, draw 
near to the fire ; if you are cold in spirit, draw near to God 
in prayer." He was one of the delegates to the Association, 
in 1817, and in each of the five following years. In the 
autumn of 1824, he removed from Paris to Athens, in the 
county of Somerset ; and there he died on the 9th of .Sep- 
tember, 1826. 

Dea. Chandler, better known perhaps as Dr. Chandler, 
was born in Duxbury, Mass., in 1782. He came to Paris 
and settled as a practicing physician in this village, in 1806 ; 
and he continued in practice here till the close of his life. 
He represented the town in the Legislature at Boston in 

* See " History of Woodstock, Me. * * * By William B. Lai)hani," pages 
.V), 51; — and Ajipendix, pages 273-3J1. 



62 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

1818 and 1819 ; — with Elder Hooper he was a member of 
the Convention which framed the Constitution of the State 
of Maine in 1820; and he was Judge of Probate from 1S20 
till his death in 1827. He left a good reputation as an un- 
assuming, amiable, and upright man ; as an intelligent 
and useful citizen ; as a skilful and beloved physician ; and 
a faithful member and officer of the church. 

Dea. Mann was a man of good natural abilities and 
strong religious convictions. Like all his predecessors in 
the office which he held, — with the single exception of the 
first, — he began his term of service, and ended it, — in the 
ministry of Elder Hooper ; and he is the last of whom this 
can be said. He resigned his office in 1S38 ; and died in 
1858, at the age of seventy-four years. 

Dea. Luke Chase was born in Sutton, Mass., May 15th, 
1782. It is said that he found Christ precious to him as the 
Savior, and became one of his true disciples, when nine 
vears old. After reaching his majority, he lived several 
years, in Barre, Mass. ; and while tliere was deacon of a 
church. He came to Paris in 1826; and, in the next year, 
he settled on the farm on which he lived till the end of his 
life, and which is now occupied by his son Dea. Austin 
Chase. He died on the 25th of September, 1839; ^'^ days 
after the close of the meeting of the Association held with 
this church that year. He was a good man, faithful to his 
trust as a Christian, as a Christian parent, as a member of 
the church, and as one of its officers ; and, when he died, 
his pastor said of him, " He died as a Christian could wish 
to die." 

Dea. Stevens was born in this town, November 13th, 
iSoi, and his whole life was passed in the town, first, after 
his maturity, on Stearns Hill, and later at South Paris. He 
died there on the 26th of November, 1865 ; and he was the 
first person whose burial was in the new cemetery. — He 
was a quiet, unostentatious man, of good executive ability, 
and a good Christian influence. He is now spoken of as 
"■ Dea. Stevens of blessed memory." 

Dea. Levi Thayer was born October 23rd, i793i hi a 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 63 

part of Buckfield, afterwards annexed to Paris. He first 
settled in Buckfield, but soon removed to Paris, and remained 
here till the close of his life, having the respect, esteem and 
confidence of all who knew him. He died on the 5th of 
June, 1875. 

Dea. Joel B. Thayer was born in Buckfield, on the 9th 
of April, 1799. He was converted in early life; received 
into the fellowship of this church by letter in 1839 ' — '^"'^ 
chosen deacon the same year. When he resigned his office, 
after thirty-five years of service, the church unanimously 
voted him the title of " honorary deacon," during the 
remainder of his life ; and the same honor was conferred 
upon Dea. Austin Chase, who resigned his office at the same 
time. Dea. Thayer lived to complete his fourscore years ; 
and died on the 14th of June, 1S80. He was a man of 
much activity and energy, wisdom and prudence ; one who 
managed his own business well, — on Christian principles; 
and who managed his own religious life, and the affairs of 
the church, on business principles, being " diligent in busi- 
ness ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord." As such he had 
the respect of all who knew him. 

Dea. Rice was born in Gorham, March loth, 1814. He 
was converted in early life ; and he joined the Baptist church 
in Buxton, in 1S29, when he was baptized by the Rev. Dr. 
Adam Wilson, who was then the acting pastor of that 
church. In 1852, by letter from the church in Hartford, he 
united with the church in Hebron, and received the hand of 
fellowship from its pastor, Dr. Wilson. On the i6th of 
March, 1856, he united with this church, and, for the third 
time, received the hand of fellowship from Dr. Wilson, who 
was then the pastor of the church. Early in the present 
year, he received his dismission to the church in South 
Paris, where he resided; and he died there on the 21st of 
last month ; only ten days ago. He was a man of good 
sense and sound judgment ; singularly devout in spirit ; strict 
in the discharge of duty, both to the church and the world ; 
and worthy of his companionship with those who filled his 
office, and passed to their reward, before him. 



64 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

Six persons have served in the office of church clerk. 
Their names with their terms of service have been as fol- 
lows : — 

* Levi Jackson, 1791-1799. 

* James Hooper, 1799-1S29. 
*Luke Chase, 1829-1839. 
Austin Chase, 1839-1845. 

* Ebenezer Thayer, 1845-1857. 
Samuel M. King, 1857 • 

The members of this church residing in Paris, have never 
been subjected to the burdens and oppressions, from which 
our brethren in other places often suffered in their early his- 
tory. But an exemption certificate was once given by Elder 
Hooper to one of our members residing in Norway ; and it 
shows plainly the difference between this and other towns 
in this regard, — or between our own and other times, before 
the Baptist doctrine of Soul-liberty gained its ascendency, 
and became part of the law of the land. The certificate to 
which reference is made, is as follows, viz. : 

" This certifies to whom it may concern that John Par- 
sons of Norway joined the Baptist church of Christ in Paris 
in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, and 
has and does now attend public worship with us. 

JAMES HOOPER, Minister. 

JOHN WILLIS, I ^ 

LEMUEL JACKSON, l^^'^'"'"^'^- 

Paris, June the 6 A. D. iSoi." 

An effort has been made to ascertain the whole number 
of members connected with the church in the century since 
its organization. This has been done by a careful exami- 
nation and tabulation of the statistics of the church given in 
the Minutes of the Associations with which it has been con- 
nected, and showing the numbers received by baptism, by 
letter, and by experience, year by year, since, in 1792, it 
was received into the Bowdoinham Association with twenty- 
one members. Adding to that number, the numbers since 
received, by baptism, by letter, and by experience, — but 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 65 

not including those who have been restored, — it appears 
that the total membership of the church has been seven hun- 
dred and three. Of this number, two hundred and seventy- 
eight have been dismissed ; seventy-nine have been 
excluded ; one hundred and eighty-one have died ; and 
seven have been dropped from the roll as entirely un- 
known, because they had removed from town, ceased 
to report themselves to the church, and left no sign or 
trace by which we might learn whether they were 
living or deceased. The present number of members is 
eighty-eight. But this showing leaves seventy members un- 
accounted for ; some of whom perhaps were dismissed, in 
e.arly times, though no record was made of their dismission, 
— and others may have moved away, and dropped silently 
out of the knowledge of the church, in the years before a 
list of its members was carefully prepared and kept. Such 
a list was first prepared by Mr. Davis, at the beginning of 
his ministry ; and, in preparing it, he had the help of Elder 
Hooper and others ; some of the constituent members of the 
church being then alive. At the end of his list, Mr. Davis 
wrote these words: "• Whole number, April lo, 183S, is 
146; males 46, females, 100. Many of them scattered, & 
their places and conduct unknown." In that and the next 
five years, Mr. Davis baptized one hundred and eleven per- 
sons ; and, in 1843, the membership of the church was 
increased to two hundred and one, the largest number ever 
connected with it at one time. 

Of the present members of the church, eleven have been 
members more than fifty years. Five of them were mem- 
bers when Mr. Davis' list was prepared ; and six of them 
were added later. — Their names, with the date and man- 
ner of their admission to the church, are as follows : — 
Mrs. Susan Mathews, Baptism, 1S25. 

" Mary Mathews, " 1830- 

Dea. Austin Chase, "■ 1831. 

Mrs. Lucy Chase, " 'S37. 

" Louisa Griffin Davis Thayer, Letter, 183S. 

" Polly Faunce Thayer, " " 



66 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

Mrs. Submit Shurtleft' Stevens, Baptism, ^^39- 

" Abigail Hooper, " 1S40. 

" Mary Sturtevant Daniels, " " 

Miss Emeline Daniels, " " 

" Harriet Briggs, " " 
In the course of its history the church has had several 

seasons of general religious interest and large ingathering ; 

and only ten years have passed without some additions, by 

letter or baptism if not both. 

In 1794 the additions were 6 

" 1795 " " " 8 

" 1796 " " " 8 

" 179S " " "• 7 

" 1S05 " " " 10 

'' 1S06 " '' '' II 

" 1814 " " " 20 

" 1816 " " "- 13 

" 1S17 " " "- 29 

" 1S18 "■ "■ " 16 

" 1825 " " "■ 64 

" 1830 " " " 10 

" 1831 " " " 52 

" 1838 "■ "■ "■ 13 

" 1839 " " " 27 

" 1840 '' " '' 50 

" 1843 " " " 31 

'■'■ 1856 '' "■ " 17 

" 1857 " " " 16 

" 1858 " " " 19 

" 1859 " " " II 

n JS7-5 '. " " 12 

Trials and troubles the church has had, — some sharp as 
thorns or brambles. Our experience has taught us the 
meaning of Christ's words: "• It must needs be that ofiences 
come." They have come here in the forms of misbelief and 
of misconduct. Sometimes it has needed all the wisdom 
and all the grace of the church to know what to do, and 
how to do it ; but very seldom lias it had occasion to deal 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 67 

with gross offences ; — and never has it been compelled to 
call a council of sister churches to assist it in settling any 
case of difficulty between its members or for any other pur- 
pose than to advise and aid in the ordination of its minis- 
ters. 

Once the field occupied by the church was wide, very 
wide. It included not only the town of Paris, but also the 
towns of Poland, Oxford, Norway, Woodstock, Green- 
wood, and Hamlin's Grant. But by the formation of 
churches in those towns, the field has been narrowed, from 
time to time, till all those towns have ceased to be parts of 
our territory, and even in this town the field has been so 
divided that there is now a church at North Paris, and 
another at South Paris ; and this church is left to occupy the 
central portion on and around the Hill. In the course of 
years, nine churches have been formed of members dis- 
missed wholly or in part from this. Those churches, with 
the years in which they were formed, and the number of 
members dismissed from this church to each — so far as is 
known, are the following : — 

CHURCHES. FORMED IX MEMBERS DISMISSED. 

2nd Buckfield, 1S02, 13 

Norway, 1806, 7 

Poland, 1S24, 9 

Woodstock and Greenwood, 1828, 19 

Hamlin's Grant, 1828, 7 

Paris and Woodstock, 1829, 22 

Lincoln, 1S30, 6 

Buckfield Village, 1854, 16 

South Paris, 1S85, 19 

Six members of the church have become ordained min- 
isters of the gospel. Three of them have finished their 
earthly work ; and three are still laboring in the vineyard. 

Of these, the first to be ordained, was George Ricker. 
He was born in Somersworth, N. H., on the 19th of Decem- 
ber, 1 77 1. While yet a young man he came to Buckfield. 
He was baptized by Elder Hooper, in October, 1799. He 
began to preach as early as April, 1S02. In that year he 



6S CENTENNIAL OF THE 

was dismissed with others to form the Second Baptist church 
in Buckfield. He was ordained pastor of that church in 
1805, and he continued its pastor five years. Then, in iSio, 
he removed to Minot, and settled in that part of the town 
which is now Auburn. There the rest of his ministry and 
life was spent. He was pastor of the church in East Au- 
burn forty years. One entry in the records of that church is 
this: "Elder George Ricker added to the church, Feb. 
1810;" — and another is: — "April 23, 1850. Dismissed 
Elder George Ricker from the pastoral care of the church, 
at his request." He died on the 9th of February, 1854. 
He was a good man, kind and genial in his manner, faith- 
ful in his work, and useful in the ministry. My intercourse 
with him while I was pastor of the church in East Auburn, 
as his successor, was only pleasant. 

John Willis, the next to be ordained, has been already 
spoken of as one of the constituent members of this 
church, and its first deacon. He was born in Mid- 
dleborough, Mass., November 27th, 1754. We do not 
know when he began to preach ; but, in Dea. Stephen 
Chase's diary, mention is made of his preaching in Wood- 
stock in 1804, and he preached at the funeral of one of 
Elder Hooper's children, in 1806. He was ordained as an 
evangelist on the 7th of March, 1810. He died suddenly 
of a ruptured blood-vessel, July 23rd, 181 2. Concerning 
his character and worth Elder Hooper said: — "He had 
great knowledge of the Bible, and was a sound predestina- 
rian, and was able to vindicate the cause of God, and would 
not yield a hair's-breadth to any man. He was meek and 
humble, and bear the infirmities of his brethren, beyond any 
man I ever saw. Brother Willis was the most like his Mas- 
ter Jesus Christ, of any man 1 ever saw." 

George Mellen Prentiss King, D. D., was born in Ox- 
ford, December 12th, 1833; but his parents were residents 
of this town from almost his first year, as they had been in 
their early life. He was baptized by Mr. Davis, on the 8th 
of July, 1S49. He was fitted for college at Hebron Acad- 
emy ; and was graduated from Waterville College, now 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 69 

Colby University, in 1S57. He also studied a year at the New- 
ton Theological Institution. He was licensed to preach by 
this church, in 1856; and he was ordained at Farmington, 
in 1S5S. He was pastor at Farmington one year; at East 
Providence, R. I., five years ; and afterwards he was Pro- 
fessor of Rhetoric in the Maryland Agricultural College. 
In 1867, he entered upon his work as President of Way- 
land Seminary, Washington, D. C, which, under his admin- 
istration, has grown to its present position of eminence and 
influence among the Literary and Theological Institutions, 
established for the enlightenment and elevation of the colored 
people of the land. He received his degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from Colby University, in 1SS6. 

George Dana Boardman Stevens, — a son of Dea. Thomas 
Stevens, — was born in this town, September 5th, 1S38. He 
was baptized by Mr. Ventres, on the iSth of July, 1858. 
He was graduated from Waterville College, now Colby 
University, in 1863. From 1S64 till 1S69 he was employed 
as a teacher at Richland, Wis. ; and from 1869 till 1S71 he 
was engaged in the same work at Hudson in the same state. 
He vvas licensed to preach by the church in Richland Cen- 
tre, 1S70; and he was ordained at Richland Centre, on the 
6th of April, 1871. At his ordination the Rev. William 
H. Brisbane, M. D., was Moderator of the council ; and he 
offered the ordaining prayer, and also gave the charge to the 
candidate. Since his ordination he has been settled as pas- 
tor in Richland, Bloomington, Cassville, and Lancaster ; — 
and, in connection with his pastorate in those places, he has 
done much missionary work in neighboring parts of Wis- 
consin. 

Otis Bent Rawson was born in Paris, March 33nd, 1836. 
He was converted when fourteen years old ; and at that time 
he united with the Methodist church at South Paris. He 
was educated in the common schools of this town ; in the 
Paris Hill Academy ; at Bates College ; and in the Boston 
Theological Seminary. Later his views of Baptism and 
Church Polity led him to connect himself with the Baptists, 
and he vvas baptized into the fellowship of this church, by 



yo CENTEXMAI. OF THE 

Dr. Wilson, on tlie 5th of June, 1S70. He was licensed to 
preach on the 2nd of July in that year, and was ordained at 
Bethel, November 4th, 1871. He was pastor of the church 
in Bethel four years; in Packersville, Conn., four years; in 
Fayette, four years; and in Lyme, Conn., one year; and 
then his earthly work was finished. He died in Lyme, 
Conn., August 34th, 1S85. — He was one of those men of 
whom it may be justly said that, " an excellent spirit was in 
him." He was modest, quiet, and retiring; averse to pub- 
lic notice, parade, and show ; and one whose qualities of 
character were substantial and enduring. As a student, he 
was diligent and thorough ; as a preacher, he was thought- 
ful, sound, and instructive; as a pastor, he was winning and 
efficient. In every field where he labored, he was respected 
and beloved ; and in death he is remembered as a true man, 
and a good minister of Jesus Christ. 

Judson Wade Shaw was born in this town, September 
6th, 1S33 ; and he was baptized by Mr. Davis, on the 8th 
of July, 1S49. He was fitted for college at Hebron Acad- 
emy ; and was graduated from Waterville College, now 
Colby University, in 1S58. He was Principal of the Acad- 
emy at North Anson in 1858 and 1859; ^"^' ^'^^" ^^^ 
engaged in other educational work till 1875. From this 
church he received a license to preach in 1S64; and in 
August of the following year, he was dismissed to the First 
Baptist church in Concord, N. H. In the autumn of 1876, 
he removed to Boston, and united with the Park Street Con- 
gregational church in that city. He was a student in the 
Andover Theological Seminary from 1879 till 1883 ; and in 
the latter year was licensed to preach by the Andover Asso- 
ciation. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Con- 
gregational church in Royalston, Mass., on the 30th of June, 
1887. After a pastorate of two years there, he was dis- 
missed and recommended unanimously by a council of the 
churches; and since that time he lias been engaged in the 
work of the "Christian Learners' antl Helpers' Union," 
whose object is to elevate the education of home and school 
life morally and religiously. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. Jl 

Since its organization, the church has been connected 
with three different associations. In 1792 it joined the 
Bowdoinham Association, which before its reception was 
composed of only ten churches. Eighteen years later it was 
dismissed with twenty-three other churches, to form the 
Cumberland Association, in 181 1. Then, after another 
period of eighteen years, it was dismissed with twenty-one 
other churches to form the Oxford Association in 1S39, and 
with that body it is still happily connected. Eight times 
the annual meetings of the associations have been held here ; 
in the years 1S12, 1S19, 1S28, 1839, ^^55i '866, 1876, and 
1885. 

The earliest known mention of a Sunday School con- 
nected with the church was in 1S37. In that year, the 
church, in its letter to the association, said, "We have a 
Sunday School ;" — and the Sunday School statistics in the 
Minutes of that year, show that it had nine teachers ; fifty 
scholars ; and one hundred and fifty volumes in its library. 
But there had been some Sunday School instruction in this 
village before that time, almost twenty years before. In 
18 1 8, the village school was taught by Miss Nancy Pierce, 
a sister of the late Judge Josiah Pierce of Gorham, and a 
very intelligent and devoted Christian woman. At a con- 
venient hour on Sundays, she met as many of her scholars 
as she could induce to come together, in the school-room in 
which she taught during the week ; and there she had a 
Sunday School with such instruction as was common at that 
time. But her Sunday School had no connection whatever 
with the church. Elder Hooper was decidedly opposed to 
Sunday Schools ; and therefore there was no place for one 
in this church during his administration. He regarded it 
as wrong for parents to delegate the religious instruction of 
their children to others, because God had laid the duty upon 
them. But some members of the church must have had an 
interest, and a deep interest, in the vSunday vSchool as an 
institution which gave promise of doing great good. This 
is shown by the action of one of the deacons, nine years 
after Miss Pierce did her good work in the village, and ten 



72 CENTENNIAL OP" THE 

years before the first mention of the Sunday School as exist- 
ing here. By his will dated "the 2ist of March, A. D. 
1S27," Dr. Benjamin Chandler bequeathed a piece of land 
" containing [his] orchard and tomb, « * * [and] com- 
prising about four acres, more or less, * # » jq ti^g 
Calvinistic Baptist church in Paris, and their successors in 
trust, forever, the income thereof to be expended in the first 
place in keeping [his] tomb & the fence around it in good 
repair, and the remainder to be faithfully applied & expend- 
ed in the instruction & encouragement of a Sunday School 
on Paris Hill, to teach the children and youth in morality & 
the religion of Jesus Christ ; said school to be free to all the 
children in the town of Paris ; the whole of said income to 
be under the care & direction of a committee, to be chosen 
by said church annually to consist of not less than three nor 
more than five, of which committee, the minister if they 
have any shall be one ex officio. " The use and income of 
this land with its fine fruit bearing trees, situated hardly half a 
mile from the Common, has been of great value to the Sun- 
day School in all the years of its history. With the coming- 
of Mr. Davis, the attitude of the church towards the Sunday 
School was at once reversed, so far as it needed to be 
reversed. By him and others the people were very gen- 
erally visited from house to house, to enlist their sympathy 
and co-operation in the Sunday School ; and the church cor- 
dially adopted it as a part of its appropriate work and means of 
influence. In 1S40, it reported the " Sabbath School a use- 
ful means of grace;" and in 1S43, it reported seventeen con- 
versions in the school. It has always been well organized 
and efficient in its work ; it has always been quick to adopt 
new and improved methods of doing its work ; its Teachers' 
Meetings, — as the seventh pastor can testify from his own 
experience, — have been of singular interest and profit, — 
and, through the generous gift of Dr. Chandler, its library 
has been large and of great value ; in several years reported 
as containing six hundred or more volumes, and once seven 
hundred. 

The church has had, — and now has, — two parsonages. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 73 

The first, consisting of house and stable, with half an acre 
of land, was the gift of Mr. Thomas Crocker in 1856. 
The second was the bequest of Mrs. Anna Hamlin Brown. 
It consists of her fine residence and grounds, — two and 
one-half acres in extent, — just across the street from the 
meeting-house. It came into the possession of the church, at 
her death, on the 13th of May last year. 

The interest taken bv the church in the various objects 
of Christian benevolence. — such as Ministerial Education, 
and Home and Foreign Missions, — deserves no slight notice. 
It shows verv plainlv the greatness of the change introduced 
bv the second pastor ; a change amounting, as I have said, 
to a revolution. I have made diligent and careful search 
for the facts, but I have found no indication of any interest 
taken bv the church in any of the great missionary move- 
ments of the age. — nor any record of any contribution made 
by it for Missions, till after the close of Elder Hooper's 
administration. The first acknowledgment that I have 
found, of monev contributed by the church for Foreign 
Missions, is in the Missionary Magazine of February, 1839: 
and it is in these words, '• Paris, a family contribution, per 
Rev. Caleb B. Davis, $4.00." In the July number of the 
Magazine for that year, there is a further acknowledgment 
of $15.61, from •' Paris." From that time till the present, 
the church has been active, well-organized, and generous, in 
its benevolent work : not a single year of this last half cent- 
ury having passed without something attempted and some- 
thing done, for Home and Foreign Missions, and the various 
kindred objects of benevolence. — In the fifty-three years 
passed since the church took hold of this work, its known 
and reported contributions have risen very steadily, from 
$19.61 in the first vear, to $352.45 this last year; the aver- 
age of the whole period has been $128.65 per year ; and the 
total amount given and reported in all the years is $6,818.50. 

From what has now been said, the peculiar, controlling 
spirit of this church, is manifest. For the space of a hun- 
dred years, it has been a living body, animated and moved 
by a living spirit. As such it has had its name, its growth. 



74 CENTENNIAL OF THE 

its activity, its influence, its history. VVidely scattered as its 
members have been, in this and neighboring towns, it has 
had its spirit of centraHzation, its unity, and its abihty to 
overcome the difliculties and disadvantages of its position, 
and to adapt itself and its methods of work and influence to 
the ever changing times and circumstances of the century, — 
as its tliree generations of men and women have come upon 
the stage, and passed away. From time to time it has 
separated itself from such as were in it but not of it; and so 
it has maintained its integrity. If its numbers are less than 
one-half as many as once tliey were, it is because, like a 
Banyan-tree, it has sent out its offshoots, which have taken 
root in the region round about, so that now there are seven 
churches with three hundred and forty-seven members in 
the field which once it occupied. 

What this church has been, and what it has done, 
towards the accomplishment of its mission, in this past 
century, we iiave now partly seen, — partly, I say, for here 
as elsewhere, — 

" 'TIs but a part we see, ami not the wliole." 

Much of the outward history of this church has been swal- 
lowed up and lost irrecoverably in the stream of time ; many a 
precious name and useful life, which you have in mind, as a 
sacred treasure, has had no mention here to-day ; while the 
inner experience of the more than seven hundred souls that 
have been sheltered in this fold, can be unfolded only in that 
day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed ; but what 
is known and recounted is for our profit that we may be 
" imitators of them who through fiith and patience inherit 
the promises." 

I Iiave spoken of those who have held some offlcial posi- 
tion in the church, and of its members as a body ; and now 
1 would gladly speak particularly of many others, whom 
you have in mind, not only as among your friends and kin- 
dred, but as among the saints of God, such as they of whom 
he said, " They shall be mine in that day when I make up 
my jewels." But if I begin to speak of them, or to tell their 
names, where shall I stop .= They once came up with us to 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 75 

the house of God, with the multitude that kept holyday ; 
but they, men and women, young men and maidens, have 
fallen by the way, and their mortal bodies have been laid 
tenderly and reverently to rest in our older or newer cem- 
eteries, or in places far remote ; while their souls are in the 
Paradise of God. We would clasp their hands, but we see 
them not ; — we listen for their voices, but we hear them 
not; and yet the places where once they were, in home or 
sanctuary, are filled with fragrant memories which they have 
left behind them. Here, to-day, and often elsewhere, it 
seems as though we were walking through a flower garden 
in the night, where, though we see no flowers, the air is 
filled with perfume, which shows how foir and sweet they 
are. This church has been very rich in souls worthy of a 
place in the White Rose of Paradise, which Dante saw 
displaying 

" The saintlj host, 
VVliom Christ in his own blood liad made his bride." 

To me this day, or I may say this service, is significant 
of far more than I can tell. To me the occasion presents 
and unfolds a roll of immense proportions, " the length 
thereof twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits." 
To me the house seems filled with shadows more numerous 
far than you whose faces I see, and the beating of whose hearts 
I seem to feel. A great cloud of the departed, men and 
women, who have loved tliis church, prayed for it, and 
labored for its prosperity, seem to be here, unseen by mortal 
eye, but rejoicing in our success ; cheering us on to better 
and better things ; chiding our dull delays, — 

" Soft rebukes in l)le9sings ende(i, 
Breathing from their lips of air." 

If one of them, the second pastor of the church, could 
now speak to us, how gladly would I stand aside and let him 
say, in his slow, measured, impressive utterance with just 
the slightest lisp — "My Christian brethren and friends, — 
I rejoice greatly in this day ; and I give you the assurance 
that I cherish for you the most sincere, unabated and abid- 
ing attachment. From the inmost depths of my soul I love 



76 CHN'TENNIAT. OF TIIK 

you, and I shall never cease to love you. From my heart I 
bless }ou, and may my God and Savior bless you evermore. 
But that you may not fail to receive his blessings and be 
enriched by it, suffer a word of exhortation : — ' My beloved 
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord.' " 

Let this pastoral and apostolic exhortation be heeded ; 
and then this church of Christ on Paris Hill, beautifid for 
situation be)ond almost any other, between the Atlantic and 
Pacific seas, shall be as fair in herself as in her situation ; if 
never large, she will have stability and peace; by her influ- 
ence she will be a light in the world, shining like a city set 
upon a hill which cannot be hid ; and she will show what it 
is to be "built on the foundation of the apostles and proph- 
ets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." 



FIRST BAPTIST CHUIJCH OF PARIS. 



11 



ORIGINAL HYMN. 



At the close of the historical discourse, tiie following 
hymn written for the occasion by Hon. Geo. F. Emery of 
Portland, was sunc to the tunc of '•'• Old Hundred " : 



t) God, our Father, as we raise 

With grateful hearts our song of praise, 
Help us Thy name now to adore, 

As here did saints in davs of vore. 



Here altar fires burn brightly still. 
And, as of old on Zion's hill, 

Shed forth their light to all around, 
Who loval to Thee would be fountl. 



One hundred \ears leave many a trace 
Of those who run the Christian race, 

And sought not for the world's renown, 
But aim'd to win the Heavenly crown. 



As in this sacred place we sit, 
We to Thy care to Thee commit 

The dear old church of ancient days, 
And to Th3' name be endless praise. 



L.cfC. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The afternoon services were opened at half-past two with 
prayer by Rev. B. L. Whitman of Portland. 

The session was devoted to short addresses by ex-pastors 
and other friends of the church. 

Rev. W. H. S. Ventres was the first speaker, followed 
by Dr. Estes. Rev. H. S. Burrage, D. D., editor of Zion's 
Advocate, Dr. A. T. Dunn, Secretary of the Convention, 
and Mr. V. Richard Foss, spoke briefly. 

Hon. George F. Emery then read the following original 
poem : 



The Old Church on the Hill. 



How gladly the plowman wends homeward his wa\', 
When shadows of twilight have curtain'd the day 
His wearisome toil is remember'd no more, 
As greets him the smile at the old cottage door. 

How surely the voyager, reaching his home, 

Leaves far in the distance his fancy to roam, 

When hands grasp him warmly, and heart throbs to heart. 

And time, neither ocean, no longer friends part. 

And yet, as glad welcomes again he now hears, 

A struggle it costs him to stifle his tears, 

As memories tender come rushing back fast, 



yo 



CENTENNIAL OF THE 



VVitli speed as of lightning from scenes of the past. 
But joyful are tears when crystal'd by love 
For friends, now companions of angels above. 

Conflicting einotions, now joyous and glad, 

Then followed by feelings quite pensive and sad, 

Stir hearts that are loyal, as hither they come 

To visit once more th' ancestral church-home, 

The church which the fathers here founded on trutb. 

So dear to the saints in the days of oiu" youth. 

The \irtues they cherish'd, the seeds they here .sowed. 
And care and devotion they freely bestowed, 
A church to establish, as by our Lord taught, 
And after his model — for so they all thought, 
Well merit the praise and honor of all. 
As on this glad day we their service recall. 

Do any deem language like this quite too strong. 
And think, in opinions, the fathers were wrong? 
In one thing, most surely, all must be agreed, 
These worthies were first here to sow gospel-seed. 
And did thev not wisely their mission fulfil, 
B_\- choosing for Zion its site on " The Hill," 
Whence far in the distance its light could be seen. 
And where no obstruction could e"er intervene.'' 
One hundred full years has its history shown, 
" The church on the Hill" lni:f lighted this town. 
Nay, far to the South its beneficent rays 
Ha\e wakened devotion in loud songs of praise. 
How many new voices God's praises now sing. 
Attuned to true worship b\- G. M. 1*. King.* 

"Tis the nature of vines f to expand and spread wide. 
And stretch out their branches on 'n>ost ev"rv side. 



*TIie allusion to Dr. King will be generally umlerstooil, l)Ut the memory of 
Jiis saintt'il mother (a (laughter of the lati' Dea. Prentiss of the South I'aris Con 
gregational cluirch,) ami of his father, Alonzo, h)ng a pillar in this chinch, im 
jn-ls me to ailil thai if men are to l)e nieasureil hy the intluence for gooil they 
exeit personally and through others, the eiiucational work of this, their son 
among the colored people, plaees his name high up on the roll of fame and use 
fuhr ss, for which any parents oa' any church, may justly congratulate them 
selves on a day like this. 

t. "Speaking of vines, the fa<-t is recallcil that "Father Hooper" was accus 
lomed very often to pray for "the little vine down at Norway.' Who will 
venture to say that his ))rayer uttereii in the ears of some present half a century 
' ujio luis not been answered in our day? 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 8l 

This process, howe%'er, withdraws from the roots 

A portion of sap to support the new shoots. 

The vine which the fathers here planted and train'd, 

Like many another some loss has sustained. 

Yet when the old trunk putteth forth a new shoot, 

The result is quite often an increase of fruit. 

So, if in the line of the Master's own will, 

We bid a God-speed to the church 'neath " The Hill." 

What pastors and preachers this church has enjoyed, 

And who in its service have well been employed, 

One honored among them the tale has well told. 

Tracing down the long line from the quaint days of old, 

When Hooper, the Elder, his flock used to feed, 

And which to the polls, it is said, he did lead.* 

He always maintain'd what he thought to be right. 

And battles for country, if needful, could fight. 

But though self-reliant, no bigot f was he, 

He claim'd for mankind fullest soul-liberty. 

To wants of his townsmen he never was blind, 

And needs of the poor he bore always in mind. 

The heart of the stranger J he often made glad, 

And shar'd with him freely the best that he had. 

* Mr. Hooper was born to lead. In politics, he wan a close follower ol An- 
drew Jackson, whom in many points he resembled, anil with scarcely an ex- 
cei)tion the members of bis flock were accustomed to vote as he did. In the 
church he was absolutely master of the situation. On one occasion when he 
was desirous of having the singing exceed in style the ordinary standard, after 
reading the hymn, he addressed the choir in the gallery in this manner: '' Dea 
con Mann, you needn't sing; you always flat! " 

t Tlie liberality of Mr. Hooper toward other denominations was well ex- 
emplified by tlie fact that on one occasion he invited a Universalist minister to 
preach in his pulpit. 

I His mode of treatment of his guests at his hos])itable board is well illus- 
trated by the following incident. Unexi)ectedly to his wife, on "washing day," 
he invited a stranger to dine with him. The viands spread on the table con- 
sisted simply of nnish and milk. On being seated, and after saying grace as 
usual, he remarked to his guest, " You see, sir, we have a frugal rei)ast to-day, 
but if you are a Christian it is good enough, and if not, it is too good!" He 
was a man of wonderful tact, and was always ready for any emergency. On 
one occasion a friend of the writer had a good-natured controversy with him on 
the merits of Dr. Watts as a poet, whom Mr. Hooper claimed to have been the 
greatest tliat ever lived. To this opinion his opponent demurred, remarking 
that " althougl) Watts had composed many excellent hymns, he had written many 
poor ones, some of which would Ije found as meritorious by reading backwards 
as forwards." " Exactly so," was the reply, " of what other poet can that be 
said?" His reading, in the main, was confined to the Bible, Watts' Hymns, 
and the weekly "Eastern Argus," except that he was accustomed sometimes to 
borrow "the old Federal Advertiser to see what the devil was about! " 



CENTENNIAL OF THE 

The creed of the fathers was of the old type. 
The day of revisions was not fully ripe. 
With faith in the power and wisdom of God, 
The path of John Calvin they carefully trod. 
Little faith did they cherish in frail mortal man, 
To aid the promotion of God's sovereign plan. 
Election by grace was the theme of their song, 
And doctrines quite kindred they held very strong. 

Who gave to the church here its formative mould, 
Its worthy historian has already told. 
If Hooper, the Elder, was somewhat unique,* 
With reverence only his name would we speak. 
The gospel he published he fully believed, 
And manj' his message with gladness received. 
The good he accomplished we'll never ignore. 
For that, real good will endure evermore. 

About 'thirty-seven a new era came. 

For tho' the old church did remain quite the same. 

And holding the Elder in genial esteem. 

Pastor Davis f establish'd a new regime. 

His learning and culture and zeal for reform 

Secur'd for him widelv a welcome most warm. 



*Asa spcciinei) of tlie uiiiiiueiiesr* of Mr. Hooper, the following may be 
given a^? an illustration. Before disinis^iug lii-^ congregation on one occasion, 
he made the following announcement: "Brethren, Christmas will occur this 
week, Ijut as the Pope and tlie devil have stolen that day from us, my advice is 
to pay little lieed to it! " 

t More than forty years of wile observation have added in(;i'eased respect 
for Mr. Davis. He was a man of eminent piety, and gifted with extraordinary 
wisdom for the peculiar conditions surrounding him as the successor of Mr. 
Hooper. His ability as a preacher and writer was liardly second to that of any 
other in his <lenomination in Maine While he never compromiseil his own 
views, lie was accustomed to so present them as to give otfence to none, and 
usually to commend liis catholic spirit to all. He acteil largely and wisely on 
the parting ailvice once given by an instructor to a young minister, to go out 
into the world with liorns on his liead, but to remember that he wa« not obliged 
to be always hooking with tliein ! It is wortliy of mention that among liis 
warmest friends were Unitarians and Universalists, who contributed lil>erally 
to his support, and some of them co-operated with him cordially in Sunday 
.S(!hool work, which he was lirst t) inaugurate in this church. We can hardly 
part company with the memory of Mr. Davis without thinking of her who was 
his companion and helper iluring his pastorate, Mrs. Thayer, as well as his de- 
vout an<l estimable sister, ^Slrs. Crocker, who have ■loubtle.'js anlicipate<l tlii.- 
occasion with pathetic interest, and to whom the warm sympathies of all can 
but be extended, whether present, or in the sanctified retreats of enforced 
seclusion. 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 83 

In the church he infused fresh vigor and life, 
The spirit of progress was everywhere rife. 
The old house of worship gave way to one new, 
And large congregations he constantly drew. 
In methods most wise, and with manners refin'd, 
He aptly the old and the new well combin'd, 
In numbers and graces the church was reviv'd, 
And precious memorials of him have surviv'd. 
In single devotion to every good cause, 
No name is more worthy than his of applause. 
The service he render'd, the e.vample he gave, 
Leave a halo of lustre o'er his early grave. 

Of pastors succeeding this learned divine. 

Few churches can show a more honorable line. 

With laurels, fresh laurels, their names would we crown, 

Both living and those who their work have laid down. 

Of memories sweetest to some gather'd here, 
Two well may be mentioned as especially dear. 
So long as life lasts will continue to ring 
The melodies sacred we loved here to sing. 
Perchance some remember a leader* in song, 
And who in his cello sweet notes would prolong. 
How tender and sacred these memories still 
To some who return to the church on " The Hill." 

And who e'er accustomed its incense to share. 

Has ever forgotten " the sweet hour of praver" ? 

Well worthy of mention and honor are they 

Who gladly at twilight met weekly to pray. 

Thougli few were their numbers, they won in the race, 

Being found, as oft spoken, in their " lot f and place." 



* The leader in song reterred to was the revereil t'atlier ol the writer, the 
former iilaying on the violiiicello, and the latter acconii)anying hiin on tlie 
violin. 

t Deacon Joel B. Thayer was a constant attendant at tlie weelily prayer 
meetings, and seldom omitted expressing modestly hi.^ desire to be found "in 
Ids lot and place." Could a picture of that little grouji of disciples, which were 
accustomed to assemble under Mr. Davis' pastoral lead in the Hamlin mansion 
tor worship, be suspended in the present vestry, it would not only grace its 
walLs, but give fre.sh inspiration to those who, in still larger numliers, are fol 
lowing in their footsteps. If this church is <lestined to l»e perpetuated, the name 
of Hamlin will deservedly go -down with it througli tlie ages. These remi 
niscences could be extended indefinitely, but your time and patience shotdd lie 
relieved at this point. 



S^ CENTENNIAL OF THE 

In most of our churches bright jewels there are, 

Exhibiting beauty and lustre quite rare. 

From days of the fathers to these have been found 

True women with virtues and graces well crown'd, 

The fire of devotion they constantly fed — 

All honor to such, whether living or dead. 

Would patience permit us to scan the church scroll, 

And speak of each worthy found on its long roll, 

Most grateful the office again to recall 

The names and the features of each and of all. 

But linger we must not — time bears us along, 
These memories precious we must not prolong. 
Tho' pleasant to muse o'er the scenes of the past, 
No treasures of earth are design'd long to last. 
Hope beckons us forward and upward to-day. 
Where treasures the choicest shall ne'er fade away, 
Where the aged recover their vigor and youth. 
Drinking fresh from the fountain of wisdom and truth, 
Where youthful immortals their powers expand 
In the light and the joy of the Heavenly Land. 

We live in an age of wide freedom of thought, — 

Things novel, things truthful, things hurtful are taught. 

If creeds of the churches seem crumbling away 

From standards as held in our forefathers' day, 

So far as concerneth the new or the old. 

Eliminate should we the dross from the gold. 

Of one thing, at least, we are perfectly sure. 

Our aims should be noble, our lives should be pure. 

The words of our Master, our spiritual food. 

Should spur all our powers to do the world good. 

Of the future, at best, little certain is known, 

Our fiiith stretches out for a heavenly crown. 

But faith that is active, and worketh by love, 

Calls down its own blessing from heaven above. 

God help all theic mission to daily fulfill. 

And specially bless the old church on " The Hill.'" 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF PARIS. 85 



EVENING SESSION. 



At the evening session the following order of services 
was carried out : 

Scripture by Rev. A. G. Fitz of South Paris. 

Prayer by Rev. A. T. Dunn, D. D. 

Address by Rev. B. L. Whitman : The Church's 
Possession in the Bible : 

I. The Divine Word for Revelation. 

II. The Divine Power for Salvation. 

III. The Divine Sword for Conquest and Defence. 
Singing and Benediction. 

Thus closed the day of interest and blessing. 



Errata. 



Page i8, line 35, instead of " recently " read " usually." 
Page 49, line 39, insert the word "the" before 
nmnher. " 



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